The Borough's reply to the Boundary Committee is at
http://tinyurl.com/3w85m2Careful reading says all powers will always be controlled at the Unitary centre, even where others ask for them, and then transfer to the Towns/Parishes will be resisted by all possible means of "too much trouble and paperwork". Anyone for North Korea?
As for the silly example of the sop of the Haverhill Arts centre, where is the town of Bury St. Edmunds mentioned -not once. Why? The SALC rport says it all.
Still we've got a new man in charge at the Town Council and I'm told not a single non-Conservative on any committee - is that true?.
Democracy? Not in Bury St. Edmunds it seems - - - -yet!
Interesting how Suffolk Coastal and the others talk about their quangos having non-voting co-optees. Democracy is alive somewhere in the County.
If you have a while look at the submissions from the others at the bottom of the page at
http://tinyurl.com/4tdsuwOn April 22nd the Borough Chief Executive was sent a 4 page letter by the Boundary Committee asking her to explain, among other questions, the roles of the Town and Parish Councils in the new Unitary council.
She has until May 9th to reply.
Please make your views known to your councillors.
The letter can be downloaded from
http://tinyurl.com/4goexmWhy, oh why must the residents of Suffolk suffer from "daft" proposals for the new Unitary authorities?
Just look what they are doing in Devon and ask yourself if that isn't what we should be telling our Councillors to do!
Instead of which St Eds Borough proposal (http://www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/live/pdf/LGR/ConceptStatementApril08.pdf) is to keep all powers at the centre. Daft or what?
Council turning local government on its head!
From Mike Bomford, Exeter 382173, April 08,2008
Innovative proposals to bring
local Government closer to the people it serves, giving people more of a say in
decisions that affect them, is a central plank in a report to Devon County
Council's Executive Committee today.
Special recognition is given to
the vital role of Exeter, which would become the capital of a new Devon.
The ambitious proposals, which
are part of the Council's response to the Government's boundary review of local
government, have for the first time in the Council's history been endorsed in a
joint report by their Leader and Shadow Leader.
Key to the Council's proposal is
harnessing the £1.4 billion spent by County and eight District Councils last
year, and devolving more powers and money to local City and Community Boards in
each of Devon's 28 market and coastal towns and the City of Exeter..
Those groups would be
responsible for their local neighbourhoods and could use their powers and funding
to provide better services that meet local priorities.
In their response to Government
the Council will set out its preference for geographic Devon to have three
unitary authorities; Plymouth, Torbay, and third which covers the rest of Devon.
Their report recommends that to
develop the capacity to empower local communities, a single unitary authority
should be created capable of managing big issues like social care and
education, whilst using economies of scale to be reinvested locally.
The Council reached its
conclusion after conducting a series of listening events with Town and Parish
Councils, and holding discussions with MPs, representatives from Devon's
business community and public sector agencies.
Out would go the current County
Council and eight District Councils, and in would be a simpler structure with
much more power and resources devolved to Devon's 28 coastal and market towns
and the City of Exeter.
Providing countywide strategic
leadership and to ensure equity in provision of public services - so that there
are economies of scale and no post code lottery of services in Devon - a single
Leader and Executive would be chosen.
The Leader of the County Council
Brian Greenslade and Shadow Leader John Hart have described the importance of
making sure that every pound spent on local government in Devon is a pound that
continues to work hard for people's local services.
£1.4 billion was spent by County
and District Councils last year on public services. The County's preferred
unitary model would reduce the cost of local government by slimming down
collective administration and eradicating unnecessary bureaucracy caused by
duplication of functions and services, and use that ?1.4 billion resource to
devolve money to improve public services at very local levels.
At that level would be a network
of City and Community Boards, led by local Unitary Councillors. With powers
devolved from the County's Executive, those Boards would work through community
forums and local charters with their neighbourhoods, town and parish councils,
and could invest in locally determined community priorities.
The Boards would work as well
with other authorities such as health, the police, the local business and
voluntary sectors.
While the unitary council's
Leader and Executive would be responsible for funding, co-ordinating and
supporting key services such as education, social care, roads and transport,
the City and Community Boards would have real influence on the Executive's
policy-making.
The Council will be submitting
its broad concept to the Boundary Committee before the deadline date of the 11
April. At this stage, broad concepts from all the Councils for unitary local
government are all that the Government has requested.
The Boundary Committee will then
consider the concepts in detail over 12 weeks and will be challenging the
authorities to clarify aspects or even to develop their concepts further.
Having then identified a
preferred concept, the Boundary Committee will conduct local consultation
through July to September, before finally reaching a recommendation for the
Secretary of State towards Christmas 2008. The Secretary of State will then
decide whether to implement the Boundary Committee's recommendation, with the
new unitary Councils to be set up by April 2010.
In reaching a recommendation,
the Boundary Committee will be looking, as it did with Exeter City Council's
bid for unitary status last year, at proposals meeting five key criteria:
A broad cross section of
support
Deliver value for money and
equity for public services
Deliver genuine
opportunities for neighbourhood empowerment - bringing local government closer
to the people it serves and enabling people to have more of a say in decisions
that affect their lives
Provide strong, effective
and accountable strategic leadership
Be affordable - transition
costs must be more than offset over a 5 year period
The Leader of the County
Council, Cllr Brian Greenslade said:
"The balance we have to strike
is between Councils forming that are too small to be effective, and ensuring a
larger council is responsive to the communities of Devon. We see the most
potential in Devon having three unitary Councils; Plymouth, Torbay and Devon.
"The model we will be submitting
will devolve responsibilities and funding to the County's 28 market and coastal
towns and the City of Exeter. Those City and Community Boards will identify
local priorities and will hold public services to account.
"We seek to turn Local
Government on its head!"
Shadow Leader of the Council,
Cllr John Hart, said:
"The people we serve are not so
concerned about who provides their service but they do want services that are
delivered locally and efficiently. The amount of money that Local Government
spends in this county of Devon is over ?1.4 billion. With economies of scale
this new type of organisation must produce savings which can then be reinvested
into services for people."
On Thursday last I lodged a written question that I propose to ask at tomorrow night's meeting.
For those who would like to see the letter enclosing the Question and all the attachments, it is available as a pdf file (1mb) at http://www.box.net/shared/static/5gu5janocc.pdf
For those who just want the question it reads as follows:
"Have the Councillors, in general meeting or otherwise, considered whether they have adequately performed their duty in holding the Executive to account over the many criticisms of the Borough Council contained in the attached – partially redacted - independent report by Suffolk Association of Local Councils into the reasons for the failure to devolve such Powers, duties and responsibilities to the Town Council as the Residents of Bury St Edmunds might reasonably have expected to have been devolved in the nearly 5 years since the reformation of Bury Town Council on May 1st 2003, and as more fully set out in the attached guide from the National Association of Local Councils?"
I will post the answer to this - if it is actually put to the meeting - and any supplemental question and answer after the meeting.
UPDATE April 9th.Following Stefan Oliver's interjection that the SLAC report could not be considered by the St Eds Borough Council as it was a private document for Bury Town Council, John Griffiths, Leader of the Council, went on to give a lengthy but insubstantive reply that effectively said all was well and that St Eds BC had not caused any of the problems and was doing everything possible for the residents of Bury St Edmunds.
My Supplementary question was then put as follows:
"Do the Councillors now recognise that in the light of the proposed Unitary Authorites this Council has an overriding duty to sort out the present prima facie dysfunctional relationship between the Councils and to ensure that all the Parish and Town Councils in the St Edmundsbury Borough are forthwith provided with full assistance by this Council to review, consider and assume transfer from theis Council of such of the Statutory Powers that the Town and Parish Councils deem appropriate, as more fully set out in the NALC guidance note - the matter being made more urgent by the requirement of the Unitary review that this Council's submissions must assume that oversight of most functions be devolved tothem in any event as the first tier of democratic government?
Councillor Griffiths replied that he did not recognise that there was a dysfunctional relationship, and that the Unitary submission would fully reflect local community involvment.
The debate on the Unitary submission was most enlightening as to the present Council's attitude to devolution of powers, but more on that later