Peter Luff Your MP Writes (From Worcester News)

Peter Luff Your MP Writes

9:31am Thursday 30th October 2008

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HERE we go again – as if we didn’t all have enough to worry about in the current economic climate, the government has decided to distract us all – and the county council in particular – with a totally unnecessary consultation.

The government has recognised that local government must be accountable to local people – hardly a novel thought – but it has decided that only it knows how it should be done.

Ministers have presented Worcestershire with only two options, one of which we have to choose – and they are both awful.

(Note that rejecting their proposals is not an option!) Option one, is for a directlyelected mayor for the whole county. Option two is for a “new style”, more powerful county council leader, elected by existing county councillors.

In 16 years as a Worcestershire MP, it has never been said to me – by constituent or councillor – that we need either of these.

This isn’t surprising because the two options proposed are neither the best, nor the only, solutions for increasing accountability.

Wouldn’t a better option be a return to the committee-based structure with the involvement of more councillors who really can be accountable to those who elect them?

Instead, the government insists we heap more of the responsibility onto one public figure, from just one community in our diverse county.

This is madness.

There is a case for elected mayors in large cities where there are genuinely shared issues that are common across the city.

But Worcestershire’s rural and urban mix makes it an infinitely more varied place and needs to be run locally too.

London, New York and Chicago (and perhaps Birmingham) need a single individual at the top, someone everyone knows is ultimately in charge and who is directly responsible to the citizens for the state of their community – but a place like Worcestershire just doesn’t.

I’ve decided to launch a consultation of my own on one simple question – do we need endless tinkering from Westminster about the way our local government is run, or should we leave it alone and instead simply ensure that Worcestershire for once gets a fair slice of the national expenditure on schools, social services, roads and so on?

I know what I think. But perhaps you disagree?

Let me know what you think – just write to me at the House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA – I’ll pass your views on and try to make sure the government listens to the real voice of the country.