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Local Democracy Week 2001, 15-19 October, is about how local authorities are promoting democracy and encouraging the public to take a more active part in how the authority makes decisions.

The Local Government Association (LGA) believes that encouraging participation in local decision-making is part of the community leadership role of local authorities, a role which has now been enshrined in legislation.

Despite the many pressures on them to respond to national initiatives — Best Value, introducing new political management arrangements, preparing a community strategy — nearly half of the local authorities in England and Wales are participating in Local Democracy Week (LDW), by finding cost-effective and imaginative ways to bring democracy closer to local people.

The Local Government Act 2000 provided a new legal framework to reinforce councils’ role as community leaders and introduced new political management arrangements designed to make decision-making more efficient and transparent. But these ideas can be difficult to explain to people who think of their local authority as a remote bureaucracy, operating from forbidding premises. LDW this year aims to provide an ideal opportunity destroy this belief amongst the public. This is why the LGA is once again encouraging authorities to take part.

This year’s theme, election matters, presents authorities with a wide range of opportunities to involve locals. For some, increasing voter registration will be a major issue; others will be seeking ways of highlighting work to promote the well-being of the area; and for many it will be an opportunity to show that the council listens.

Most of all, it will be the opportunity to make the case for the importance of the local authority as a democratically-elected body: chosen by local people and answerable to them.

Through suggestions and comments by Local authorities who participated in previous years the LDW has adopted a slightly different approach this year, with much more information going online. A dedicated web-site area and a regular bulletin to local co-coordinators aimed to highlight the many good examples of what authorities have done — and what they can aim for during Local Democracy Week 2001.