Alexis Rowell’s new book looks at how councillors and citizens can work together to promote a sustainable future

Having spent four years as a councillor, Alexis Rowell found there are plenty of good ideas out there that councils and community groups are adopting to create a low-carbon future. But he realised the majority of councils need help to understand why action is urgent and that they can have much more influence than perhaps they realise. His book, Communities, Councils and a Low-Carbon Future: what we can do if governments won’t, is an indispensable guide to what councils do, what they could do, and how to get in there and make a difference.

“I think councils and councillors have much to learn from community groups such as those that have sprung out of the Transition movement,” says Alexis. “We will move a lot faster if we have people on the inside, as well as the outside, who understand the coming crises,” he continues, referring to peak oil and climate change issues. “It’s one thing to invest time and effort into helping existing power structures understand why it’s so urgent to act now, but if activists can find ways to work within the power structures, how much faster we’d go.”

The book includes current examples of best eco-practice from local authorities across the UK and elsewhere. It also acts as a guide to influencing a council and how to find your way around local government – which can be a confusing labyrinth. “There’s an awful lot of jargon in local government that can lead to a lot of frustration and a sense of ‘us and them’” explains Alexis. He believes that councils, if they work hand in hand with local communities, can break the logjam of official inaction. If the government will not, or cannot lead the way on the transition to a low-carbon future, then communities and councils can.

Once your local group has some tangible projects under its belt and is able to show that it really can do things in the community, the council is likely to see you as a credible player. The next step is to ask for what you want. “It’s important to know what you can reasonably ask for from your council,” Alexis says. “But only go to the council when you know what you want or can offer something.”

As well as covering some of the relevant legislation, the book contains chapters on topics that councils have responsibilities for, such as recycling, water, transport, energy-efficiency, procurement and even wellbeing.

“Because councils are obliged to think about the moral, as well as the operational and business aspects of their actions, they could be a big part of the solution,” Alexis proposes, “if they get better at opening up to new ideas and enthusiasm from the community.”

While Alexis admits it is not a course for the fainthearted, a key to bringing about change in local government is, of course, to get elected. With council elections coming up in England in May 2011, this timely book provides useful insights into how you can get more done if you are on the inside of local government.

“We could scrap it all,” Alexis says about the system, “but we’d still end up with some way of organising and talking across a community.” The challenge we are all posed with is to consider what local government might look like with less carbon, and how it would operate when our place in nature is central to what we do as a community.

The aim of the Transition movement is to develop a positive vision of the future; to start thinking about how we will get there and then begin to do something about it. Alexis’s book makes a strong case that part of that plan is to get elected into the power structures and then change them from within.

Communities, Councils and a Low-Carbon
Future: what we can do if governments won’t
by Alexis Rowell, ISBN: 978 1 900322 65 2
Published by Transition Books / Green Books

Alexis Rowell, 2nd from the left, discusses
the 12 steps to Transition as part of
the Lift Festival on the South Bank, London
Photo: © Mike Grenville
To buy the book click on the cover below: