The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health (LGPIH) Bill currently going through parliament will put Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) centre stage in the life of local communities across the country.

Yet, most people have never heard of them.

Representative democracy is in crisis. Low voting levels, poor-quality councillors and low levels of public trust in public services.

Local people do not see the point in voting for councils which do not have the power to change their local area.

The Government provides most of the money for them, and dictates much of what they do.

Local police and health bodies are not accountable to local people, most of whom do not understand the complex web of agencies that run local areas.

Both problems might be overcome by having public elections for the LSP, and by allowing people to make decisions on local priorities, services and budgets. The LGPIH makes LSPs responsible for the area's Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) and Local Area Agreement (LAA). The new Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) from 2009 will have an assessment of the capacity and effectiveness of the LSP, and its annual self-assessment of its achievements, at its heart.

Yet LSPs are a weird hybrid. They are responsible for everything in the local area – yet are not elected and unaccountable to local citizens.

The council remains the only democratically-elected element of the LSP, yet it is only responsible for a minority of local services.

At a stroke, many of the problems outlined above could at least partially be addressed by making LSPs the elected local body, rather than the council. How might this be done? Here are some examples: