WHETHER or not the fondness shown by the ruling Conservative group on Hyndburn Council for getting the people it serves to make its decisions is in some part due to it having such slender control that it fears being voted out of power if gets the blame for unpopular ones, the fact remains that this departure is improving and boosting local government.

For we see that soon after holding Lancashire's first-ever referendum - one that gave residents of Great Harwood a direct say over a new town-centre supermarket plan - Hyndburn Tories are now considering holding another; this time, over whether wheelie bins should be introduced.

And what is so positive about this "power-to-the-people" innovation is that residents cannot accuse the council of ignoring their opinion - a charge that at present lies behind the deep and depressing apathy at local government elections.

Look at the difference when people are given the opportunity to have a direct influence on council decisions - particularly over controversial issues that affect their daily lives.

The healthy turn-out of more than 50 per cent in the Great Harwood supermarket referendum is in stark contrast to the abysmal ones that characterise the municipal polls.

If people can see that their opinion both matters and counts, then they will become more involved.

But if party chiefs - particularly those of parties that dominate town halls - fail to realise this then they will forever have the bogus mandates that are generated by the apathy of a disaffected electorate.

They should take a leaf out of Hyndburn Tories' book and seek greater people power.

So, too, should the government as it searches for more democratic and, so, less-likely-to-be-corrupt local government.

The Tory group displayed encouraging drive in this direction when it announced plans three months ago to give the towns in Hyndburn their own neighbourhood councils on which local residents and traders could sit and be involved in decisions.

This idea and the referenda may be a long way from the purist ideal of absolute democracy and may be somewhat inspired by Hyndburn Tories' desire for survival as the party in control, but they are a clear and refreshing distance from the warped democracy of the rubber-stamp wielded by the party juntas that have town hall power without real consent.

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