Local people will be able to petition the council to take action on issues such as traffic calming, moving dumped cars, or cleaning up fly-tipping under new rights proposed by the Government.

Local Labour MP Tony Wright has challenged local people to take up the new powers and force action from the council.

Tony said: “Most people in Great Yarmouth will at some point have signed a petition. But soon, petitions will have real bite, and the council will have to sit up and take notice of local people’s concerns. I want people to tell me what they want fixing, and if the council won’t act, we will work together to launch a petition. Petitions will give our communities real clout.

“For too long we have been receiving sub-standard service from our Tory Borough Council and these new measures will give us residents the power to make Councillors sit up and take notice”.  

Labour’s Communities in Control white paper also suggests that local people should be able to decide how the council spends money, how criminals should be punished as part of their ‘community payback’, how more young people should be involved, and how local groups should own and run assets such as parks and community centres.

Tony will be giving out a new pocket-sized card called What Can I Do? to local groups in coming weeks. The card sets out how people can have their say, get involved, and make changes locally.

Tony continued: “These measures are all about giving power back to communities to determine the decisions that affect them. I strongly urge people to get in touch with me if they feel like I do that they are getting a rough deal from the Council and want to do something about it”.