• Time for review of local government The Farnham Herald letters page, Friday 15 August 2015 Sir, - Having recently ploughed my way through the Waverley Borough Council Draft Revised Statement of Community Involvement listened to various pronouncements, actions and decisions of WBC over the years and read much unfair criticism of Haslemere Town Council recently I feel the time is now right to consider a root and branch review of local government both operationally and financially. In 1974, with transport and communications infrastructure as they then were it may well have seemed a good idea to introduce Borough councils and try to devolve more powers locally with Westminster and even, to an extent, County Hall seemingly remote. However, the provision of local government services is becoming ever more expensive. Allied to this is the ever diminishing pool of talented and intelligent people willing to serve as councillors. Borough councils could now be abolished with the services and assets transferred back to county and town councils, particularly when you consider how vastly improved transport and communications systems and structures are now. Both councils would then benefit from the smaller pool of the talent mentioned above and removing from office those clearly incapable of performing their roles of representing the people properly. County could take over the more strategic roles and provide such services as refuse collection, enjoying the benefits of the economies of scale that would bring. Town could easily take over services such as parking and operate them in a more locally sympathetic manner than is currently the case. Within the national strategic planning requirements, town would also be better placed to understand local requirements and meet national requirements in a more sympathetic manner. Town councils, obviously, will have to be ‘beefed’ up resulting in additional costs at that level but these costs would be more than covered by the savings made in removing Borough and the consequent sale/transfer of their assets. There would a better use of the smaller pool of talented people willing to stand as councillors and staffing requirements at both levels would be more than met from the pool ‘of Borough staff. Further savings will also be made by better use of the transport and communications infrastructure now in place. The introduction of the Localism Act suggested that political parties had also spotted a problem in the sensing that local communities were not feeling as involved as they would like to be. The Big Society idea is another good example of that. The detachment now felt is due, substantially, to the involvement of the middle tier of local government — Borough. It is no longer one thing or the other as far as local people are concerned. But the new local groups that have sprung up under this act will never gain the democratic legitimacy, respect or accountability that would come with stronger local councils. Such groups act as a drain on local funds and are, essentially, unelected small groups of people and more prone to people seeking to further their own ends. Yes, they are well intentioned and there may well be a few groups around the country who have been successful and of benefit to their local communities but they will not have and never will gain the democratic legitimacy, respectability or the accountability that a strong town local council would have. A stronger town council would negate the need for such local groups as defined in the Localism Act. It would enable the town council to better represent the wishes, needs and requirements of the local people and bring back ‘in-house’ those roles they have been compelled to outsource or subrogate to such local groups and lead the whole community who would, in turn, feel more empowered themselves. Craig McGowan, address supplied, Haslemere
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 07:41:54 +0000
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