Appeal over abolition of council
Wednesday 19th December 2007, 11:00AM GMT.
Shropshire’s councillors were urged today to “make the best” of the abolition of their district councils and to try to ensure a smooth transition to the new all-purpose county authority.
Tory MP Philip Dunne issued the appeal as the Government laid the orders in Parliament to create the shadow unitary authority before it becomes a reality in April 2009.
“It is a sad day for democracy that the Government has decided to override the clearly expressed wishes of Shropshire people and are imposing a unitary authority through these orders,” said the Ludlow MP.
“But now it is important to focus on making the best decisions for Shropshire. I urge all councillors to work to make the best of the situation before us.
“Recent decisions by the county council over rural schools policy show the need to ensure rural areas are well represented.”
The orders pave the way for the abolition of the Oswestry, Shrewsbury & Atcham, Bridgnorth, South Shropshire and North Shropshire districts on April 1 2009, the date when all district councillors will lose office.
They also pave the way for the establishment of an “implementation executive” comprising the leader of Shropshire County Council, seven cabinet members nominated by the county council, four Labour members of the county council, three Liberal Democrat county councillors, the five district council leaders, and nine other district councillors.
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Goodbye good governance, hello bloated bureaucracy, ever-increasing rate bills and ever-decreasing services.
Don’t believe it? Just seem what happened in The Wrekin in 1974. We are still paying for the blunder to create a unitary authority, then.
Any councillor or officer who says that it will be somehow magically different in Shropshire is full of rubbish.
Why are they pushing for unitary authority for Shropshire? They are doing it because they have heard the sound of the stick in the bucket and have seen the swill being poured into the trough!
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good reason to reduce council tax or most likely any savings will be swallowed up by massive redundancy pay-outs.conned again arent we?.
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i quite agree with you matt, this normally good government have produced some jolly daft ideas and a unitary authority for shropshire ranks among the top 3 worst ideas. let us hear it for south shropshire council amongst others while we can. you are not alone up there they are reorganising devon county council as well
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I think my hero Petronius got it right, when he said “We worked hard, trained hard, and when we were working smoothly as a team – they would re-organsise us, this would create confusion and mistrust”.
That was in about 55BC, does no-one learn?
I remain as totally unconvinced as to what advantages there are, as I do in our governments signing of the Euro Treaty.
BJH
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Err… Matt – The Wrekin was formed in 1974 as a district of Shropshire, and was made a unitary authority only in 1998.
Your rates (or “council tax” as it has actually been called for over 15 years now) has gone up dramatically in EVERY district, unitary authority and other local authorities in the UK over the past 10 years or so. Nothing to do with the type of council, more to do with the government giving more responsibilities to local authorities.
Stop scare-mongering about the new Shropshire unitary authority. I for one welcome it. One Shropshire. One Council.
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Well Said Dave Jones
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Actually it’s One Shropshire, Two Councils – Telford & Wrekin is still in Shropshire.
But anyway, council tax bills will be kept low for a year or two as promised because they’ve been bumped up so high beforehand to compensate.
Referenda have been held in 3 out of the 5 districts and in all 3 the electorate clearly expressed their wish to retain the district council system. Shropshire County Council have acted improperly (making the application to create a unitary authority when public opinion is demonstrably against it is a clarly a case of Wednesbury unreasonableness) and in approving the application in anticipation of powers that she still doesn’t have, Jacqui Smith has acted ultra vires and the decision should be struck down by a judge.
David Jones, you are part of the minority, why should the majority sit back and accept it?
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