WHILE it is excellent to hear that Bury Council's executive committee has finally decided to respond to the Government's White Paper on Local Democracy, the apparent confusion as to what is entailed in the adoption of a community plan will be of very serious concern to all community-minded people in the borough.

Contrary to what newly-appointed head of corporate policy and research, Carolyn Wilkins, believes, community planning is not a simple concept.

To begin with, one has to be very clear as to what we mean by "community".

According to Gabriel Chanan and Alison West from the Community Development Foundation (June 1999), for regeneration purposes, or for the purpose of tackling social exclusion, the "community" is the whole local population of a specified locality. This may include people who work or visit regularly but do not live there.

If one adopts this definition of a "community", voluntary organisations are not community organisations because they do not operate in one specified locality nor are they run or managed by local people. In addition, they are often formally registered charities with paid professional staff and they run a service to meet specific needs. In other words, a voluntary organisation acts more like a public service rather than being a representative of local community interests. Within the CDF's definition of what constitutes a "community", tenant groups would clearly be community organisations. However, out of a population of 76,760 (according to the 1991 Census), there were only 9,000 council tenants left in Bury and there were only two tenants associations. Considerably more resources and support to build-up these organisations will also be required before they could claim to be representative of the whole of their communities.

Businesses and trade unionists would be invaluable in providing added resources and as sources of professional expertise to a local community organisation, but there could be acute dangers where their interests are in direct conflict with those of the community.

In too many cases major environmental problems have been caused by the expansion of a local factory or retail development in direct opposition to local community groups.

The fact that councillors have expressed a desire to broaden the base of the community plan steering committee's membership, and have called for more representation from the community sector, is all well and good. However, in talking to the police, the Council for Voluntary Organisations and trades unionists prior to getting their heads round what the word "community" means - and seeking council approval for that definition - members of the steering group are already demonstrating an ignorance and arrogance which does not sit comfortably with their proclaimed new-found faith in local democracy

Meanwhile, the Bury Community Enterprise company has embarked on a major consultation exercise with the 1,200 residents in the Fernhill "community". Five hundred leaflets have been distributed in preparation for the setting-up of a neighbourhood community committee and community enterprise resource centre in Bury's old Co-op building on Hornby Street,

Bury Community Enterprise has made a valuable contribution to the council's SRB consultation process and its final SRB submission document. It has also made its case for £760,000 of Bury's SRB 5 money towards the funding of their seven-year community enterprise resource centre project in Fernhill.

NICOLE IVANOFF,

Guiseley Close,

Bury.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.