The Street that did away with council services

BBC political editor Nick Robinson presents a unique social experiment, as he persuades one street in Preston to give up all council services for six weeks.

Armed with their council tax rebates, the 50 residents must rally round and run their own community themselves.

A recent Telegraph newspaper article by Nick Robinson provides a good insight into the documentary, he says:
"The street in question is in Preston, but it could be pretty much any street in any town or city except for one thing. The residents of this street agreed to take part in a unique experiment. They agreed to live without all the services their council tax pays for – all, that is, except for schools for their children and the emergency services – and to let the BBC film how they got along or, more often, how they did not."

"I watched as they argued about who should be in charge and, indeed, whether anyone needed to be in charge at all. I looked on as they debated the contents of a four-page memo exploring the options for which solvent they should use to remove graffiti, while steadfastly ignoring the request of a neighbour to talk about how she should replace the childcare she no longer got from the council."

Episode one of the five part documentary 'The Street That Cut Everything' is being broadcast by BBC1 on Monday 16 May at 9.00pm.

Earlier in the year, according to a Daily Mail article, the BBC was accused of ‘outrageous scaremongering’ about the impact of public spending cuts after commissioning this documentary. An aide to Communities Secretary Eric Pickles reported the BBC to Ofcom, branding the film ‘an unforgivable breach of editorial standards’.