Local Agenda 21 (LA21)

3. The Local Agenda 21 Process

3.1 This section provides a synopsis of the process by which this LA21 Action Plan has been produced. It describes the Council's response to the request from the Rio Earth Summit to prepare a Local Agenda 21, outlines the public participation process and the next steps following the publication of this document.

Background

3.2; At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (The Earth Summit) in 1992, world leaders signed up to Agenda 21. Chapter 28 of that document asked every local authority in the world to:

"Enter into a dialogue with its citizens, local organisations and private enterprises and adopt a Local Agenda 21".

That means preparing a local action plan for the next century. It has been suggested on many occasions that over two thirds of Agenda 21 cannot be delivered without the commitment and involvement of local authorities and the communities they serve.

The Tameside Response

3.3 In responding to this challenge, Tameside Council first adopted the aim of working towards sustainable development in April 1994 and established a framework for preparing a LA21 in October 1995. The first task to be completed was the publication of the Charter for Sustainable Development in May 1996, which signalled the start of public consultation on the preparation of a LA21 Action Plan. The next step took place in November 1996 when the LA21 Roundtable first met comprising of representatives of Borough-wide organisations. The role of the Roundtable was to co-ordinate the public consultation process and to work in partnership with the Council on preparation of the Action Plan. In order to enable the widest possible public involvement three Topic Working Groups (TWG) were established which met on a regular basis between January and June 1997. The three groups were asked to develop policies and actions in relation to a range of subjects and were each chaired by a member of the LA21 Roundtable as follows:

3.4 The findings and proposals for inclusion in the LA21 Action Plan were agreed by the TWGs in relation to each subject and were fed back to the LA21 Roundtable. In turn, these were reported to the LA21 Panel, which was the Council's Sub Committee responsible for co-ordinating this area of work (it is now the Technical Services Link Committee).

Youth Consultation

3.5 In recognition of the crucial role of young people in this process a LA21 Youth Consultation Day took place at Tameside College in June 1997. This involved some eighty year nine pupils representing fourteen schools throughout the Borough. The day consisted of a mix of workshops, presentations and questions to a panel of experts, aiming to raise awareness as well as seek young peoples' views on the main issues. Where appropriate, these consultation findings were subsequently incorporated into this Action Plan.

Public Consultation Phase II

3.6 The result of the above process was the publication of the draft LA21 Action Plan in February 1998, which signalled the start of the second phase of public consultation. This involved the widespread distribution of the draft plan and gathering of views and observations on its content. The findings were then assessed by the LA21 Roundtable and the Council subsequently approved their recommendations.

3.7 During this period new Government guidance relating to the preparation of LA21 documents was issued. It suggested prioritising the actions "with only very few given top priority" and including a means of monitoring the effectiveness of the strategy. Consequently it will be seen that section 5 of this plan identifies a number of initial priority actions and section 6 defines a range of sustainability indicators. Unfortunately time did not allow either of these two subjects to be part of the wider public consultation process, but it is understood that they will be considered as part of the annual review.

The Next Steps

3.8 As indicated earlier, the production of the LA21 Action Plan is only the start of a long-term process of implementation of its actions, monitoring their effectiveness and reviewing the appropriateness of the programme. There will clearly be an important role for the LA21 Roundtable in overseeing this process and helping to build the partnerships necessary to achieve sustainability. Although a considerable number of individuals and organisations have participated so far, there is a need to involve even more people in future, in particular from the business sector. At the first annual review a short monitoring report will be prepared and published that will measure the level of success in meeting these objectives.