Sustainable Communities
On 14 October 2008 the Sustainable Communities Act process began. This new law came about due to a large scale campaign run by the Local Works coalition, of which ACS is a leading member. The Act empowers local traders, local businesses and communities to drive the actions of central Government.
You and your communities can now push for things like:
• rate relief for small shops
• increased rates on superstores and big chains
• promotion and protection of local services (e.g. bus services)
• changes to the planning rules to restrict new superstores
Never before have we had such a fantastic ‘bottom-up’ mechanism enshrined in law. However, you need to push your council to use the Act first because if they do not then you cannot use the new powers at all.
So please do the following:
1. Write to your councillors urging them to: “please pass a motion resolving to use the Sustainable Communities Act.” A sample letter is available on the Local Works website here .
2. Please ask others to write too - the more people who write the better! Send this action to friends, family, colleagues etc.
To see if your council has already opted in and for more information on how you can use the Act please visit the Local Works website