Mixed reaction to regional assembly plans (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Mixed reaction to regional assembly plans

CIRENCESTER and the Cotswolds, together with the rest of Gloucestershire, could soon be "ruled" from Exeter.

If controversial proposals for regional government go ahead the Cirencester-based Cotswold District Council and the county council will both be swept away, to be replaced over the next decade by an elected regional assembly.

The six district councils in Gloucestershire would be replaced by one, two or, at most, three large unitary authorities to provide local services.

And in place of the county council, there would be a new regional assembly for the South West, made up of between 25 and 35 people elected by proportional representation, and probably based in the mid-Devon city.

That assembly would be one of eight into which the Government says England could be divided.

Each would have a multi-million pound budget, would be able to raise extra cash through council tax, and would be run by a cabinet of about six, full-time, salaried councillors.

Whether or not there will be an assembly in the South West will, says the Government in its new White Paper, be up to the people who live there to decide for themselves.

If they wish it, says the White Paper, a referendum will be held and if the majority vote in favour the assembly will be established.

And if the vote goes against, said Clive Abbott, chief executive of CDC, then the Government will establish unitary authorities right across the region.

"There will be no exceptions," he said. "Both county and district councils will be abolished."

Mr Abbott stressed that district councillors had not yet debated the White Paper, but said he believed the Cotswolds, with a population of only 84,000, would be unlikely to have its own unitary authority.

Mr Abbott pointed out that the South West Regional Chamber, made up of local authorities and their partners in business and the trade unions, already met quarterly in the Devon County Council chamber at Exeter.

"I think that because of its geographical location, Exeter is the most likely base for any elected assembly," he said.

Personally, he said, this was a worry in that "local" government would in fact be further away from the people of the Cotswolds.

"It all depends on whether the Government will really devolve powers down to the assemblies," he said.

And far from clarifying the way local government worked, he added, the assembly proposals could create greater confusion.

Cllr Robert Smith, leader of the council's Conservative group, said he opposed the proposals.

He said:"I think that local people would be disenfranchised if the district and county councils were destroyed. "A regional assembly down in the West Country would not be conducive to good local government."

CDC's Liberal Democrat leader Deryck Nash said: "I am sorry John Prescott has missed the chance to devolve some powers to local people. "For years local authorities have been increasingly constrained by Westminster and this was a chance to redress the balance."

Peter Clarke, Labour leader of Gloucesteshire County Council, welcomed the proposals, and said he personally would favour the creation of just one unitary council to cover the county.

His deputy, Liberal Democrat Liz Boait, said she too welcomed the decision to allow regions to decide for themselves whether they wanted elected assemblies, but was disappointed there was no sign the assemblies would have all the powers they needed.

Tory spokesperson Lady Mavis Dunrossil said the proposals for regional government should be "a wake-up call" for everyone who cared about local democracy. "We may grumble about our present forms and structures of parish, district and county," she said, "but they are local and when we have a complaint our focus can be directed at a local member or official." She added: "Gloucestershire sits awkwardly in a Whitehall-contrived mish-mash that will inevitably be dominated by the urban centres of Bristol and Plymouth."

In Wiltshire, Tory county council leader Peter Chalke sparked a row when he issued a statement declaring that the administration there was "totally against" any further reorganisation.

Peter Sample, the Liberal Democrat spokesman, said Cllr Chalke had made the statement without consulting the other Parties. He said:"The council has no policy on this matter, the statement was a blatant misuse of the council's resources for Party political purposes."

Cllr Sample welcomed the idea of regional government, saying it would strengthen the South West at the expense of Whitehall.

Wiltshire, he said, should be at the forefront of creating a new region. "If we hold back, Wiltshire will suffer," he said.

Cllr Chalke told the Standard : "I don't think there is anyone in the South West with any appetite for a regional assembly. "The areas which would be lumped together have nothing in common. We should stick with the local government structure we are used to and which is working very effectively."

But Labour spokesperson Margaret Taylor said a regional assembly would be able to deal far more quickly and efficiently with matters concerning the region's infrastructure, and regional and economic development. "The counties are becoming too small to cope," she said.