30 July 2020
As local councillors representing the Green Party in Somerset, we welcome the
opportunity to review restructuring local government. We are particularly in
favour of devolving power back to local communities. The current proposal for a
Somerset-wide single unitary authority however, threatens to centralise power
even more than at present, and pre-empts the Government's intention to adopt
unitary councils nationwide. We believe a wider range of more suitable options
may be available if this decision is deferred until the proposed Government
White Paper is published.
A Somerset-wide authority would certainly retain the current County
headquarters in Taunton. Important matters like waste collection, car parks and
planning in the eastern Mendip area, for example, would be ultimately in the
hands of officers fifty miles away, and under the scrutiny of councillors who
represent communities up to eighty miles distant. While it is proposed that more
local Community Networks and Planning Boards would be formed to
decentralise power, the ultimate decisions would lie only with Unitary
councillors. This restructuring of local services is based on the Wiltshire model,
which has exposed many weaknesses in the system and failed to deliver the
cost-effective services promised.
We as Green Party councillors in the Mendip area have serious reservations
about implementing widescale changes, particularly during this time of crisis. If
change is to be enforced, then we would rather see Mendip District combined
with one or more of its neighbouring east Somerset councils. Given the
Government's decree that each authority must be a minimum 400,000 in
population, an alternative would be for Mendip and South Somerset districts to
combine with the current unitary council of Bath and North East Somerset.
Whilst bigger than we would wish, this area would still be more compact in
population and geographical reach than the proposed Somerset Unitary
proposal. Existing road, bus, and rail links run far more directly from north to
south in eastern Somerset, maintaining easier direct contact with local health
and school services delivered from existing provision, largely in Bath and Yeovil.
The principle of local Planning Boards and Community Networks would be
retained under this proposal, with the intention of giving greater say to the towns
and parish councils within the new authority.
In turn, the above proposal would also invite the logical creation of a new West
Somerset council, integrating the Somerset West and Taunton, Sedgemoor, and
North Somerset councils, conveniently linked by the M5 corridor.
The decision to go down the single unitary route will have far-reaching
consequences. In a time of health and climate crisis, it is better that we
approach the matter with a positive range of options in the interests of all
residents in Somerset.
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