Sunday 31 October 2010

Civic Pride

Chesterfield has an imposing town hall and residents took pride in it, as well as the corporation's bus services, swimming pools, parks and other amenities. Queen's Park was (is) the jewel in the crown. Derbyshire County Cricket Club plays matches in the park and many a journalist has observed that the ground and its environs are amongst the most pleasant in England where county cricket is played.

Matches against Yorkshire and Lancashire were always very keenly contested affairs and I remember watching Clive Lloyd, Brian Statham, Brian Close, John Hampshire, and Fred Trueman playing and getting the 'bird' from Derbyshire followers. My earliest memory is watching the West Indies team which included Weekes, Walcott and Worrall.

In the 1960s the government moved the Accountant General's Department to Chesterfield and built new premises for it in the former goods yard of the Lancashire Derbyshire and East Coast Railway (which terminated at Chesterfield at one end and on just outside Lincoln at the other!) A new housing estate was built by the Council to house civil servants from the South-east and Harrogate. There was immense civic pride in Chesterfield over these developments.

Fast forward 40 years. Is civic pride what it was then? Did the insistence of the Thatcher governments that councils tender for services and privatise lead to a loss of civic pride? I believe it did and this is reflected in the nose-dive in the number of people voting at local elections. I read recently that Suffolk County Council plans to outsource virtually all its direct delivery functions .

I recognise that municipal ownership and operation of services is not always the most efficient or cost effective way of doing things. I do think though that too often we fail to distinguish between price and value and fail to recognise hidden costs and benefits.

I await with interest the development of the Big Society and Localism concepts of the current government. Will they lead to an increase in civic pride and participation in civic life, using the term 'civic' in its broadest sense? I hope so, but I have my doubts.

3 comments:

  1. KCC have just stolen our community purchased road safety mirror - it was put up by the community due to accidents and the fact that we have to drive half way out into the road from our lane before we can see what is coming - by then if something is coming fast up the road, basically we are pretty fe**ed. So much for a bit society - even a little community based safety action is not acceptable. We want our road safety mirror back!!!

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  2. that should read 'Big Society' not bit - typo error

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  3. Yes, I read abou the loss of the mirror. Did anyone see KCC moving it? The council must give it back to you, otherwise theft.

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