POLITICIANS in both Brussels and Westminster have taken great pains to try to brush off people’s many concerns about the toxic EU-US trade deal being pushed through. But a new front is emerging in the battle against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This front is harnessing the energy of grassroots groups to push local councils to oppose the corporate power grab TTIP represents. In Britain and across Europe, TTIP-free zones are popping up.

It may be seen as a purely symbolic gesture to get your local council to declare itself a TTIP-free zone. After all, these councils don’t have a direct say in whether or not the deal would be passed. But there is political value in creating pressure in this manner — it’s a powerful expression of grassroots opposition that MPs and MEPs might otherwise not be exposed to.

But TTIP-free zones help highlight the effect TTIP would have on the powers of local councils. TTIP could also affect existing powers granted to local authorities such as planning. The decision of Lancashire County Council to deny planning permission for fracking in the local area is the sort of decision that would be harder to make under TTIP — first because such a decision could be challenged in the corporate courts of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement system, and second because of the pressure to “harmonise” energy regulations.