By Merlin Stone, Neil Woodcock and Ashley Semmens.The public sector must decide whether the people they serve are customers or citizens. This is the challenge of a report from the think tank Public Management and Policy Association. The report also poses questions about the effectiveness of ‘customer’ and ‘stakeholder’ management techniques.

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Local authorities across England and Wales will be implementing a simplified system of environmental regulations from April next year. A new single permit is to be introduced to replace the current waste management licence and pollution prevention and control systems.

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Every local council and every school in England have been sent a series of new guides as part of Local Democracy Week, which runs until Sunday. The guides are designed to help increase the number of young people who get involved in politics. The guides include ‘Sending the councillor back to school’ and ‘Getting the most out of your council chamber’, both produced for councillors and councils. Others are ‘Bringing democracy to the classroom’, which has a number of lesson ideas for citizenship teachers and ‘Introducing young people to local politics’, which is for those working with young people outside school.

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