SOONER or later, any government of the day will feel the need to question the efficiency and structure of local authorities. The last major shake-up took place in the 1970s and is worth recalling now.

During the late 60s, John Redcliffe-Maud drew up a report that called for the abolition of all the existing county, county borough, borough, urban district and rural district councils, which had been created at the end of the 19th Century, and their replacement with new unitary authorities.

The then Labour government was broadly in favour. However, the Tories took power in 1970 and ditched the Maud Report in favour of their own system, which led to the 1974 reorganisation.

Much of this was flawed, as Herefordshire people will confirm. They were unhappy with being linked to Worcestershire and eventually managed to secede. Many readers will also be aware of a strange creation called "Avon".

The point is this. The present government's new White Paper which supports decentralised powers sounds very commendable, but experience teaches us that the proof of this kind of administrative pudding is always in the eating.

In particular, this newspaper is not happy with Whitehall's call for county councils to be scrapped. By and large, they have served the public well, working in the existing two-tier arrangement. Of course, the bill for any reorganisation - almost certainly enormous - would be picked up by the taxpayer. So we say... if it ain't broke then don't fix it.