MOOT this, discuss that, reframe the other . . . the Government is having a good old think about what happens next to local authorities.
More say for residents and more power devolved to a neighbourhood level are two ideas being discussed in the latest hoo-ha over structural reform. However, at least one politician suspects Whitehall of deliberately excluding councillors from its list of consultative chats, reports The MJ (Jan 19).
Gordon Keymer, chairman of the Conservative District Forum, wrote to the magazine to complain that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) was working with council officers rather than elected members. He said: “On December 12, David Miliband invited councillors to debate the future of local government. Yet, while councillors are left to talk to themselves, the real work is going on between the ODPM and council officers. Meetings are being held with council chief executives where issues such as alleged weaknesses of the two-tier system are being chewed over . . . the ODPM seems to be coming to a conclusion about local government reorganisation without even talking to councillors about it.”
At the New Local Government Network’s annual conference, Miliband said that, when considering local empowerment, his “starting point was simple — devolve as far as possible”.
www.nlgn.org.uk