Partnership to boost democracy

The Coalfields Regeneration Trust (CRT) in Scotland has teamed with the Electoral Reform Society to boost local democracy in former mining areas through a new approach – ‘Act As If You Own The Place’.

The two organisations decided on a joint approach after realising they were both working towards the same goal of uniting local communities to have a bigger say in how their areas develop.

They will pilot the use of ‘Act As If You Own The Place’ as part of the CRT’s hugely successful Community Futures programme in Torryburn and Newmills on September 3.

Willie Sullivan, director of the Electoral Reform Society, said: “We were really pleased to find that the CRT was already practising a lot of what we preach by working with local communities at grassroots level.

“Democracy has not served our coalfields communities well, as they continue to suffer from health, employment and other inequalities, decades after the collapse of their industry. This joint venture with the CRT is a great opportunity to explore and develop the concept of local people running their own place.

“It is not an attempt to replace representative democracy. It’s more about accepting that layers of formal democratic representation are too remote, which leads to disillusionment and disengagement.”

CRT has helped more than 30 communities run Coalfields Community Futures programmes in the last five years.