LOCAL councils have been promised greater powers under a Conservative government committed to reversing the march towards regionalisation.

Bernard Jenkin, shadow minister for the regions, told the final day of the Tory conference in Bournemouth it was time local government was put back in the hands of local communities.

He said that a Tory government would scrap Labour's agenda of handing power to regional authorities and give councils more independence.

Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff backed the call, decrying the way Worcestershire County Council has been stripped of its planning authority.

"I can understand people are a bit cynical because it was under the last Conservative government that local councils began to lose their powers," he said.

"But that process has escalated under Labour under the twin pressures of central government targets and regionalisation.

"So district councils have almost no discretion over what they do now and county councils have lost their planning powers.

"I know Worcestershire County Council and district councils are much better placed to take decisions affecting local people than Whitehall or Birmingham."