Sir, Reading Magnus Linklater’s column “My Kafkaesque struggle against the local bureaucrats” (Jan 30), one could only feel sympathy.
I would, however, suggest that he is mistaken in his attitude to the devolution of power. Allowing local authorities to make more decisions for their communities and giving them the ability to raise more money locally provides an opportunity to reduce bureaucracy and make public servants more accountable.
Local authorities are best placed to understand and respond to the needs of their communities and to ensure that local people receive the services they need. It is hardly surprising that local councils understand local problems better than London-based national bureaucrats. In the best local authorities, face-to-face contact with the public is promoted and where call centres are used customer care is paramount. Involvement with local communities allows services to be tailored to local circumstances and councils are held to account.
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How much better would it be if the effort that is currently put in to determining nationally, in great detail, how local authorities should and should not provide services is, instead, put into ensuring all local authorities come up to the standards of the best? I would hope that in such a future Mr Linklater would receive the courteous and efficient service that every citizen deserves.
Alison Scott
Chartered Institute of Public Accountancy and Finance
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Sir, Magnus Linklater’s case would be made if he could demonstrate that national or governmental bureaucracies were more human, more responsive, more flexible and more approachable than their local counterparts.
The truth is that there is only one thing worse than an impenetrable local bureaucracy — and that is an impenetrable national bureaucracy.
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David Weston
Sherborne, Dorset
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Sir, Magnus Linklater misses the point when he tells us of his Kafakaesque struggle with local council bureaucrats over payment of council tax arrears on his daughter’s erstwhile flat.
He may be seething from the experience, but I bet he’ll be damn sure that in future he pays any such bills promptly and in full.
Nick Elsley
London N20