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I believe that by trading in LETS they will have a more positive effect on the local community than any amount of funding or one-off grants would give.Many other Councils have various types of involvement in LETS - often only as funders, which I think is a shame. I have seen it suggested that a LETS scheme could interest their local council in membership by offering them a grant of "local" as an incentive. A humorous idea, but not very realistic I imagine. Other councils have also got involved by enabling subsidiary projects under their aegis to benefit from earnt local currency - I believe Calderdale Council trade along these lines, as do Hounslow in principle (though not yet in practice as far as I know).
We wanted our council to join as an ordinary trading member.
Several members of the Frome LETS core group approached the council before Christmas to ask them if they were interested in joining the scheme. We subsequently had a couple of meetings with the town clerk and a couple of councillors early this year. they were convinced that the council not only ought to support the scheme because it represented local interest, but because membership could be of real benefit to the Council itself. When the proposal was taken to the vote, the members of the Council who were already existing LETS members were required to be absent - which amused me with its apparent implication that their vote would constitute some sort of unethical interest - like insider dealing ! Still, I guess Council bodies are accustomed to procedures such as that. Anyway, the vote was in favour, with a recommendation that the proposal be put before the council's auditors for approval.
This part of the procedure took ages - about three months, but finally word crept back that the auditors "couldn't envisage that trading for Fromes would be a problem". What a wonderful endorsement ! Oh well.... .
So the council then arranged to discuss the matter at another meeting - and agreed then to become full trading members as of the first of May.
Frome Town Council is a fairly small affair - a lot of the resources and funding in the area is managed by Mendip District Council, but the Town Council does run Victoria Park, which offers play facilities for children, as well as putting, bowls and tennis Courts. These latter services are charged for, and LETS members may now use them for payment in local currency; "Fromes". The other main asset of the Town Council is the Market Hall, a central building which is used for a great number of different local trading events - regular craft and flea markets, as well as book sales, jumbles, tool sales and the like. Frome LETS has always used the Market Hall for its biannual trading fairs, and we are now able to book this facility too, for local currency.
Finally, the Council also offers photocopying for payment in Fromes - a very valuable resource for the LETS group as a whole, as a considerable amount of our (deliberately small) sterling budget has been devoted to the cost of photocopying and printing. We have already used the photocopying for "Fromes" - and as our new improved directory is nearly ready to print we will shortly be photocopying again in huge quantities - we have over 300 members, and the new directory has over 1600 "offers" listed, so it is quite a large document!
What I particularly like about the way that the Council have joined is their recognition that trading in Fromes is valuable - too often one meets individuals or businesses who treat LETS trading as a sort of club discount - only offering 10% in local currency and desperate to cover their sterling costs before they make room for LETS. By offering 100% payment in local, the Council are showing that they believe LETS currency does count, and recognising that it is a valid currency with which they will be able to purchase the services that they require. I believe that by trading in LETS they will have a more positive effect on the local community than any amount of funding or one off grants would give.
And as I write there are shops in the Catherine Hill area of Frome closing down; shops that opened one year ago exactly with the offer of one year's exemption from the business tax........... so much for financial support.
Helen Frances.
Frome LETS
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