I am sure that Nigel Farage would love the opportunity to embarrass Labour and the Tories as much as he can in May’s local elections. But sorry, Angela Rayner is right – for once – to delay local elections for a year in some areas so that local government can be reorganised and many councils abolished.
No, it is not ‘cowardice’, as the Reform leader described it yesterday, adding, ‘I thought only dictators cancelled elections.’ It is simply a case of trying to save money and free the taxpayer from having to prop up a multiplicity of unnecessary councils. In any case, most of the councils where elections have been called off are Conservative-controlled; only in Thurrock could Rayner be accused of trying to keep Labour in power beyond its existing mandate.
Local government needs reform because it is an absurd mix of authorities with competing powers, with multiple sets of mayors, councillors and officials. Take Norfolk, one of the areas where elections won’t now be happening in May. It has eight councils: one county council and seven district councils which sit below it, as well as town and parish councils. As over much of England, the county council is responsible for the roads but the district councils are responsible for planning – two things which surely go hand in hand. If you want to know why housing estates keep popping up in places where the highways infrastructure isn’t there to support them, there is your reason.
The sensible model for local government is to have councils which each cover a large town and its hinterland – the latter being the area from which people might be expected to travel to work, go shopping or use public services such as hospitals. Norfolk would neatly divide into two: one council covering Norwich and the east of the county, the other covering King’s Lynn and the west. Suffolk, another of the counties involved in reorganisation, also naturally divides into two administrative zones: one to cover Ipswich and the east of the county, the other covering Bury St Edmunds and the west.
I wish Cambridgeshire (where I live) could be included too. Then we could get rid of the wretched South Cambridgeshire District Council and its four-day week. No wonder its staff think they can do their work in fewer days – I don’t quite understand what work they have to do anyway. They don’t look after roads or schools (that’s the county council). Emptying the bins and planning have long since been hived off into a joint operation with the county council. Nor, given that its area covers only villages, does it have much in the way of car parks to look after or tourists to manage. And yet it has a grandiose HQ which is hardly used because, of course, its staff work many of their four days a week at home.
Councillors love the multi-tier structure of local government because it allows them to double up their allowances and expenses: many sit on both the county council as well as their local authority. It is a Lib Dem paradise but a ratepayers’ nightmare. Reform UK should be in favour of sweeping away this ridiculous system as soon as possible – it is hard to see how the party justifies its name otherwise. There will be plenty of opportunities for Farage & co. to embarrass Labour and the Tories over the coming years, but for now they should enthusiastically side with taxpayers who are fed up with propping up a swollen class of local government bureaucrats.
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