ORGANISERS of the Block Vote Campaign are planning to petition Parliament for ­further local empowerment and have organised a public meeting for Tuesday, November 17.

The campaign, which was launched in February, calls for ‘vote power’ to be added to local powers granted by the Localism Act 2011. The petition is calling for town and parish councils to become stakeholders in their futures by being granted a 35 per cent vote in decision-making processes.

The campaign hopes this would ­encourage better accountability and the prospect of planning applications being judged truly on their merit.

Campaign organiser David Cohen said: ‘As things stand, an optimistic piece of ­legislation is falling short of its potential by keeping town and parish councils as ­consultees in the planning process.

‘They’re still restricted to making ­“recommendations”, which carry a vote value of zero per cent when decisions are made at district and county council levels.

‘Of course, it’s governments that make the laws and set down how they’re ­managed, but the ongoing system is now demonstrably out of date, as every week we see district councils in stand-offs with town and parish councils because they fail, or are unwilling, to recognise just how essential the knowledge and experience of local people is.

‘It’s a huge pity, more so because future challenges are likely to become more problematic and controversial as Westminster increasingly looks for more money to pay off the nation’s debts and minds focus on district and county assets, including real estate.

‘Our day centres, recreation land etc need protecting for the day our communities want to settle on what their towns and ­villages look like and how they will work and prosper.’

The first public meeting, on November 17, will take place at Salcombe Primary School between 6.30pm and 7pm .

David added: ‘I hope the town will want to support the petition, which we’ll aim to complete by the end of the year, before ­syndicating out to neighbouring communities where local councils are known to be supportive.’

For further information, David can be contacted by emailing puddimouse@yahoo. co.uk.