Forum:What would an environmental contract for local sustainability look like?

(This is a draft for posting to the new Defra wiki.)

First and foremost it would give a role to all stakeholders passionate about sustainability.

Each local comunity would have a Quality of Life Forum (QLF), open to all and genuinely inclusive.

In terms of an environmental contract, put simply:

Citizens would engage in Quality of life Forums

if

Government ensured that such engagement was properly valued, respected and resourced.

Quality of Life Forums would have a role not just in planning for sustainability (as happened via Local Agenda 21) but also in its delivery, and crucially in monitoring, evaluating and audting this delivery (holding everyone to account).

Local Agenda 21 at its best gave a wide range of stakeholders a tantalising first glimpse of community empowerment. If sustainabilty is ever to become a reality for local communities, government has at some stage to evolve beyond the limitations of representative government and embrace more participatory democracy.

The former tends to be about the words, whereas the latter, if properly inclusive, could be more about the deeds. To borrow from the title of another government initiative, Together We Can.