Powers for communities could benefit woodland
Good news! The first round of the SCA has fnally been completed. Round two is now open!
What is the 'SCA'?
This is a new Act to empower citizens and can be used to improve the local environment. This Act enables councils to implement ideas generated by their residents, such as creating local woodlands, by requesting appropriate action or resources through central government.
Here's how it works. Proposals are developed by local councils with their residents and then formally submitted to an independant 'selector' - at present this role is held by the Local Government Association. The selector assesses each proposal, then through negotiation with government an agreement is reached on which proposals will be implemented and how.
Over 200 very varied proposals were submitted by Councils in 2009. See the right hand side links for more details.
The environment and the SCA
We believe that the SCA has enormous potential to help residents create more sustainable communities and to enable people to improve and enhance their neighbourhoods through woodland creation, restoration and protection.
What's happening now?
After a protracted negotiation period the government and the selector have finally reached agreement about all those proposals. A report about the decisions was published in December 2010 and is now available to download (pdf).
As an active member of the LocalWorks coalition, the Woodland Trust worked hard to push this forward and your help in lobbying for a faster response was greatly appreciated - thank you!
What can you do?
At the same time as publishing the report about the outcome of 'Round One' under the Act, the Secretary of State, Greg Clark officially opened 'Round Two' by inviting all councils and communities to submit new proposals. The LocalWorks website has more details about this.
It is very important that communities continue to take advantage of their new powers!
Why not contact your local council and ask them how you can get involved in, or even set up, a 'community panel' to talk about your ideas? We have devised a model proposal about creating community woodland and tree planting - download it here to transform your neighbourhood with trees.
We changed the law together, let's see it in action!