Dear Editor,
I see the government is proposing to create a number of new unitary authorities out of the present multi-tier council system, with Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex all looking at major changes. Local Government reorganisation, swapping and changing, has been a continual feature in England since 1973.
I remember growing up and being served by our own small Urban District Council in Yorkshire in the 1960s. The council only had 700 residents yet provided local services for more than 80 years including council housing, parks, cemeteries, road maintenance, road sweeping and refuse collection. In the winter, the pavements and local roads were gritted and cleared of snow, reducing accidents and allowing transport to function.
It worked well, people knew their councillors and it was low cost and efficient.
The Labour government’s plan for yet more merges, to make even bigger mega-local authorities, is most certainly a backwood step as it makes council services ever more remote.
This contrasts sharply with what I have grown accustomed to over the last 15 years living in South West France. Our village of 400 people has it’s own mayor, town hall and village hall, employs a full time workman who maintains public spaces, verges, trees and local roads, including fixing potholes and country lanes. The local cantonnier doing this is equipped with the necessary tractor, plant and equipment all based locally.
All planning applications start at Commune level. We have involvement in local schools and school transport among a variety of other responsibilities, including maintaining the civil register of Births, Marriages and Deaths.
The only admin support is three half days a week, but in France all the admin systems are digital, interlinked and work!
We know our mayor, we know our councillors and they are respected. The mayor is the first person locally responsible for law and order in the village.
In France, there is, of course decentralised regional government and the départments (counties), but both these tiers are deeply rooted in working with and facilitating the delivery of services locally. It’s decidedly both a top down and a bottom up approach to delivering national and local objectives.
The French Senate is elected by local councillors. This guarantees the integrity of local government. It underpins it’s essentially local functions.
All of this is as close as possible to French voters.
Angela Rayner’s plans, like those of her predecessors over five decades, will increase costs, not reduced them, reduce services and defeat the object of localised government. In short, a grave mistake.
It is way beyond time that Britain started looking seriously at France, where systems are tried and tested and in my view, generally do work very well!
It’s almost 40 years since I was lasted elected as a borough councillor in Doncaster. Next year I hope, if elected as a Conseiller Municipal (councillor), to contribute here in France on our own devolved local council.
Now, that’s real devolution!
Trevor Stables
Saint Amant de Nouere, Charente, France
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