Greens welcome Suffolk decision

12 February 2010

Side-lining of plans for one or two giant councils to run Suffolk has been welcomed by the Green Party, which advocated merger of Districts as a route to Unitary councils more than 18 months ago.

Formation of huge councils, whether one or two for Suffolk, would have lacked widespread support and left a democratic deficit as each councillor struggled to serve far too many electors. An effective County takeover of District services would have further enlarged a management structure which is already so big that policies and services are rarely "joined up."

This decision opens the way for further progress by Babergh and Mid Suffolk councils towards further service integration, and possible merger, a far better way to move to eventual relatively local Unitary councils. Partnership working is steadily increasing without the costly ministrations of the Boundary Committee, primarily between pairs of councils (Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury, Coastal and Waveney), but also more widely, such as the back office and public contact joint venture, CSD, which handles finance, human resources, web presence and call handling for SCC and Mid Suffolk.

When this process has gone much further, within existing financial constraints, it should, as Government now suggest, be possible to shape a uniquely Suffolk way of creating Unitary Councils, by agreement between councillors elected by the public. Schools and social services are better suited to local oversight and should be devolved to the enlarged Districts. County-wide partnerships of Districts and SCC have already been formed to manage waste and tackle climate change, and this pattern should be extended to provide specialist services such as Libraries, Archaeology, Adoption, Bridge Engineering and Special Schools.

This is the pattern the Green Party proposed to the Boundary Committee more than 18 months ago, and it is a matter of regret that it took such a tortuous route to arrive at the same answer.

Ends

Ffi Cllr. John Matthissen 01449 771742 07976 308128

Cllr. Mark Ereira-Guyer 07545 423841

Cllr. Andrew Stringer 07774 199061 01449 780339

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