IT MAY, in a sense, be putting the clock back to the era of the old urban districts, but the plan at Hyndburn to give back to the borough's towns the kind of individual councils they lost in the shake-up of local government 25 years ago is a forward-looking move.

For it is one seeking to bring involvement in local affairs much closer to the people.

And if the immense apathy displayed in the council elections is a measure of how remote most voters feel from local government, then every encouragement should be given to such moves to take it closer to their doorsteps and to engage them in the decisions on and management of the vital services for which they pay.

This, of course, is not a new idea in East Lancashire.

Pendle Council has devolved its affairs to five area committees covering different locations of the borough since the mid-1990s and has empowered residents with the right to speak at meetings.

Similarly, Hyndburn would have separate councils for Great Harwood and Rishton, Clayton-le-Moors and Church, Accrington North incorporating Huncoat and Accrington South including Baxenden and Oswaldtwistle - all overseen by the existing district council.

And in another encouraging development - going much further than the public "question time" experiment Hyndburn tried at council meetings last year - local residents and traders could sit on the new local councils and be involved in their decisions.

But other local authorities ought also to draw lessons from this reversal of remoteness, particularly when their mandates are based on the votes of a only minority of the electorate.

In particular, those dominated by one particular party - the County Council, Blackburn with Darwen and Burnley - might ask whether the serial apathy at elections lies in voters being disaffected by a belief that control of their affairs lies with party juntas and not with them as it should.

No wonder local government is meaningless to so many.

The kind of accountability to which Hyndburn's ruling Tory group is exposing itself - when its hold on power is most slim - is by contrast not only brave, but also right and proper and much more democratic.

Let's have more of this - everywhere.

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