Are the wheels beginning to fall off the Localism agenda...?

Earlier this year, Secretary of State for Communities, Eric Pickles, declared that the introduction of the Localism Bill would mean the "era of big government is over" and that it would "reverse the central creep of decades and replace it with local control."

The Pickles hyperbole machine continued claiming that the Localism Bill was "a triumph for democracy over bureaucracy. It will fundamentally shake up the balance of power in this country. It will revitalise local democracy and put power back where it belongs - in the hands of the people."

Which all sounds fantastic until the wheels start to come off.  Lets take the case of the powers contained in Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004... (yes, I know this is probably very sad but stick with it as the example is instructive!)

London boroughs and Transport for London already have the powers to enforce moving traffic contraventions - such as driving in bus lanes, banned turns, and boxed junction infringements. Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 contains the powers which would allow local authorities outside London to take enforcement action against road users who committed such "moving traffic contraventions".

On 15th December 2010, Norman Baker (the Transport Minister) wrote to local councils asking whether they wanted the powers contained in "Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004". The  letter outlined that the: "main powers, therefore, that local authorities outside London do not have that local authorities in London have under locally made legislation is to enforce some moving traffic matters that are there either to give priority to certain road users or to smooth traffic flows and help manage localised congestion and road safety hot spots."

It has been reported that the consultation generated responses from 13 highway authorities, including: Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Plymouth, Reading, Salford, Sheffield, and Southampton. All but one authority supported the powers being introduced and most reported that they would use the powers.

In September, the House of Commons transport committee’s report on traffic management, snappily entitled 'Out of the jam: reducing congestion on our roads', on traffic management concluded that: "We can see no reason why Part 6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 should not be fully commenced to enable local authorities to deal more effectively with moving traffic contraventions and we recommend that the Government bring this part of the Act into force, by 2013.” (Paragraph 16) (emphasis added).


So virtually everyone at the local authority level (who responded) wanted the regulations to be extended outside of London and the parliamentary transport committee could see "no reason" why this should not happen.

Unfortunately, it was announced on 18th November 2011, that Norman Baker had decided not to give the the powers to enforce moving traffic contraventions to the local authorities outside of London.  The reason given?  According to TransportExtra who broke the story, Norman Baker told the Local Goverment Association that “I have therefore concluded that there can be no case for devoting scarce resources to this matter at the moment. I am sorry to send what I expect will be a disappointing letter.”

So next time you are cycling in a bus lane and are nearly run over by a car, truck or lorry that shouldn't be driving in the bus lane, or are nearly side-swiped by a car doing an illegal U-turn or you cannot cross the road when the traffic lights are green because vehicles are blocking the yellow box junction.... and get to wondering why your local council aren't doing anything about it.... just remember, they would have liked to do be able to take action against such thoughtless (or downright homicidal) road users but unfortunately, despite Mr Pickles pledge to"reverse the central creep of decades and replace it with local control",  it would seem that central Government still thinks it knows best.

Localism?  Eat your heart out!