The Government
are keen to make any offer of increased powers to local authorities conditional
upon devolution
to reorganised local government structures, including more “metro mayors”
(where a single elected individual directs the delivery of services across a
number of local government units). This may well be reflected in a forthcoming
White Paper.
In Sussex we
need more powers for our local authorities. To make traffic in our city of Brighton
and Hove run we need the powers that London Boroughs have in relation to “red routes”, in many
seaside towns we need the power to raise tourist taxes to provide the additional
resources to pump prime community
wealth building and we need enhanced planning powers to require the
provision of genuinely
affordable housing in sufficient quantities from property developers who
can afford to appeal decisions made by local authorities.
However, there
is not a shred of evidence that local people in Sussex want a change in our
local government structures in order to have these local powers for the
Councillors we elect. We were given a Duke of Sussex we didn’t ask for and that
hasn’t turned out well, we don’t need a Mayor of Sussex to go with him (or to
stay after he has gone). East
and West Sussex County Councils might manage for a while with one Chief
Executive – but that doesn’t mean that the people of Sussex have asked for
a change in local government structures.
The people of
Sussex could make good choices with greater local powers, but we won’t want to
be forced into changes we didn’t ask for in order to get those powers – and I
hope that our local Tories will be as loyal to Sussex as they can expect that
the rest of us will be.
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