Comments on Regional Government

I've said a bit about Regional Assemblies elsewhere on this site.

I am pleased to see that the Conservatives oppose the government's ambition to impose Regional Assemblies on us. Here's a brief account of why I oppose them and shall argue against any attempts to get West Devon Borough Council to support them.

We already have a confusion of different arms of local government, all with different duties and responsibilities, different levels of representation, different election dates and different degrees of party political influence. I can't see why we need yet another layer, though I can see why an urban-focussed government might see some advantages (for them) in it.
In Tavistock, there are three councils that we all pay for. In order of size and cost, these are:

The current government proposal is to create yet another layer, the South West Regional Assembly (SWRA), covering an area from Tewkesbury to Lands End. Anyone care to guess whether it will cost more or less than the County Council?
Would you believe that government claims that it will cost very little. Anyone believe that?

Bearing in mind that Devon County Council has just lumbered us all with an 18% hike in Council Tax, you might be tempted to think that abolishing the County Council wouldn't be a bad thing. The snag is that it takes some believing that a Regional Assembly would be able for long to resist the temptation to expand its bureaucracy, even if, as is claimed, it can be run relatively cheaply in its infancy.

The other problem I forsee is a serious accountability deficit. Tavistock has seven (out of thirty-one) members on West Devon Borough Council, but just one on Devon County Council. The SWRA will cover an area much greater than the parliamentary constituency. With luck, we might get one representative from the whole of Devon.
As I see it, the rural interests of most of us in West Devon would be entirely swamped by the much greater populations of the cities like Bristol that would have members in proportion to their populations. This is another move by an urban-based government to marginalise the influence of rural communities and skew decisions towards the interests of the urban majorities.

That's why I do not support Regional Government and shall argue against support for it from West Devon Borough Council.


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Published as an Internet document by R W Mathew, Willowby, Down Road, Tavistock, Devon