District Councils vanish in 5 Counties

Firstly I would like to ask a simple question. Why does the Labour Party hold over twice as many seats in Unitary Authorities than they do in District Councils? Below is the make up of three different Councils: -

I don't know the answer to this question, but perhaps the party in government is seen as ok to govern nationally but not necessarily seen well at a local level. The table above shows the decline in Labour support the more local you become. It would be interesting to look at the Parish Councils, however there are over 10,000 of these, but I'd bet my own money that Labour support would approach 7%.

However the government is quite clearly keen to promote and support better local government. Hazel Blears is currently in the news promoting the governments "Action Plan for Community Empowerment Building on Success", she comments: -

"What better example could there be of local democracy in action than the parish council? These are local people, elected by their neighbours, knowing what their village needs, and able to levy a small precept to invest in it.

That's why we are giving the best parishes a new "well-being power", giving them much more discretion to spend their money as they see fit - on everything from environmental projects, local services for the young or elderly, or getting involved in social enterprises."

The action plan itself is a large document and covers topics ranging from Widening and deepening empowerment opportunities locally to Strengthening local representative democracy.

To read this document click HERE.

So while Hazel Blears is banging on about more local democracy Local Government Minister John Healey is making and announcement about how the government is going to save the tax payer £75M by implementing 5 new Unitary Authorities in 5 Counties. What this means is the abolition of 28 District or borough Councils and 5 County Councils, all to be replaced by 5 new Unitary Authorities.

In terms of representative population the picture looks like this: -

This means that on average a council representing 74,000 people is now going to represent nearly 340,000 people spread over the entire area of a County. Here then is a second question I can not answer, how does John Healey's Unitary Authority move support Hazel Blears proposal "Strengthening local representative democracy"?

It seems to me that if I'm in one of these new Unitary Authorities I shall become a faceless unheard individual in half a million. I'll have a better chance of winning a tenner on the lottery than being represented.

Let me know what you think e-mail keith.cooper@thelocalchannel.co.uk perhaps you can answer my 2 questions.