Diary of a Shopkeeper, 29th September 2024

This might be the most boring premise for a column in four-and-a-half years of writing them: what is the function of local government?

The question came to my mind during a five-hour meeting at the Picky Centre on Thursday, organised by the Orkney Business Forum. This informal group was set up about 18 months ago, in an attempt to help the council understand private business, and vice versa. From understanding comes cooperation, and from cooperation comes progress.

First off was a presentation by two staff from the planning department. They outlined their policies in a way that made them sound eminently reasonable and very necessary. Everyone clapped politely at the end. Later, though, the talk amongst the business attendees was generally critical, in some cases bitterly so. I’ve had virtually no need to make planning applications, so can’t comment from personal experience.

Next up was a session where we split into groups to discuss the Local Development Plan. This strategic document must be reviewed every five years, and it takes about three years to do so. Final strategy decisions should always be taken by elected members – councillors – but it seems the broad range of options they’re offered to choose from originates in this Local Development Plan. It’s clearly an important document, and the opportunity to contribute towards it was valuable.

Having said that, our session lasted 90 minutes, and everyone in the room chipped in ideas. That’s a lot of notions in a tiny amount of time out of the three-year duration of the review. Thousands more opinions and suggestions will be collected throughout this research period. Who knows whether any of those ideas will make it into, or even influence, the final strategies. It would be nice to think they would be, but I for one have been urging for improvements to traffic management and parking in central Kirkwall for 25 years now and have seen no significant changes. So I’m not overly optimistic.

The afternoon session focussed on the Orkney Towns Fund. You may remember this was a £20 million investment announced as part of the previous UK government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda. Roughly 100 towns or areas were chosen to receive this funding, spread over 10 years. The great thing about this money is that each recipient community gets to decide what to spend it on. Obviously it must avoid projects that are the responsibility of central or local government, but apart from that it can be invested in whatever we think will bring most benefit.

Again we separated into groups and contributed a handful of suggestions each, ranging from an abattoir to an indoor sports pitch, to county-wide wifi, to publishing grants for Orkney books, to a music and performing arts centre. Every suggestion was documented and collated and will be added to the large pile already gathered at other events over the summer. And over the next few months the Towns Board – independent of the council though with several representatives from that and other public bodies on it – will draw up its list of agreed projects.

And then…well, it all depends on whether the new UK government decides to continue with this very worthwhile investment. There’s a lot of worried talk here – as there is in other beneficiary communities – that the Towns Fund is at risk, just as the Winter Fuel Payments for pensioners are to be axed. A cynical observer might conclude that the Conservative government promised £20 million to 100 communities shortly before an election in order to gain votes. Now Labour is in power it feels no need to continue the scheme: it’s safe for another five years, so why hand out money now? They can think of a similar brownie-point-earning announcement in 2029.

Which brings me back to where I started: what is the function of local government?

The word ‘government’ has a fascinating history. Its roots go back to ancient Greek and kybernan, which means to pilot a ship. In Latin that transformed into gubernare, meaning to direct or rule. That became governer in Old French, and eventually govern in Scots and English. But can local government really ‘direct and rule’, when it has its purse strings and policy strategies so tightly regulated by central government? The attempt to collect public opinion through the Orkney Business Forum and other listening exercises is welcome, but how much comes of the ideas contributed at these events is not entirely under local control, unfortunately.

It seems to me that what local government does is akin to a technique used by winemakers in Tuscany. While making Chianti, a wine always at risk of being overly acidic, a portion of semi-dried grapes can be added to bolster fermentation and add extra flavour and sweetness. This trick is known as governo, and it strikes me as very similar to what local government must do when implementing national government policy: sweetening the acid.

This diary appeared in The Orcadian on 2nd October 2024. A new diary appears weekly. I post them in this blog a few days after each newspaper appearance, with added illustrations, and occasional small corrections or additions.