Local development frameworks, community strategies and area agreements - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 320

prepare and keep under review a Community Strategy which gives expression to their
statutory duty to promote the economic, social and environmental well-being of their
area and to contribute to sustainable development. In doing so they are required
to have regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State (ODPM 2003 c; WAG
2008a).
In preparing their strategies authorities are encouraged to form Local Strategic
Partnerships (LSPs) with other principal organisations and representatives of stakeholder
groups in their area. There is no specified format for the form or functioning of these
LSPs - they are 'a voluntary framework for local cooperation'. Ideally an LSP should be
developed on the basis of collaborative arrangements already established in an area and
the operation of existing partnerships should be brought within the LSP umbrella.
In Scotland a similar system of Community Planning has been established under
the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003. It is defined as
a process … whereby public services in the area of the local authority are planned
and provided after consultation and (on-going) co-operation … among all public
bodies ... and with community bodies.
Community Planning Partnerships have been established in all 32 Scottish local
authority areas together with a national Community Planning Network. However
unlike England and Wales there is no requirement placed on them to prepare
Community Strategies.
For English and Welsh authorities the objectives to be served by a community
strategy are as listed in Box 19.4.
The Government's aim is that community strategies should become embedded into
partners' managerial cultures, resource planning and budgetary decisions with its long-
term vision providing the context in which all other corporate strategies and plans are
grounded. (They were re-named 'Sustainable Community Strategies' in 2007.)
The concept of a community strategy is open to criticism as an initiative which
is characteristic of New Labour in being strong on aspiration but weak on substance
(Sullivan 2004). For practical purposes it is rather woolly and ill-defined and is
dependent on 'partnerships' materialising in order to achieve anything. A consultation
paper reviewing experience with community strategies and LSPs acknowledged the
'lack of clarity' with which they are perceived (ODPM 2005b) and the Government
accepted that productive arrangements would take time to develop.
A community strategy has four main components (ODPM 2003c para 11):
• a long-term vision for the area focusing on the outcomes that are to be
achieved
• an action plan identifying shorter-term priorities and activities that will
contribute to the achievement of long-term outcomes
• a shared commitment to implement the action plan and proposals for doing
so
• arrangements for monitoring the implementation of the action plan, for
periodically reviewing the community strategy, and for reporting progress to
local communities.
As a catalyst for action the Government established a voluntary system of local
Public Service Agreements through which councils could obtain additional funding by