Vote over unitary bid ignored

I cannot claim to have been particularly surprised to read the news in the Shropshire Star that despite the very clear vote against a unitary authority for Shropshire, Ruth Kelly has shortlisted the proposal for approval.

She has given Shropshire County Council the go-ahead to begin a three-month consultation period. over this contentious issue, providing the county council can "demonstrate robustly that it will cut council tax".

This is clearly a smack in the face for local democracy. We, the local voters and local tax payers, were asked in a referendum agreed by the council, if we wished this proposal to go ahead.

We clearly said "no".

One is tempted to inquire which part of "no" these people do not understand.

As it was, Shropshire County Council submitted proposals for replacing themselves with a unitary authority on the very day the referendum results were made available.

They omitted these results from their reports, thus giving the impression that there is little or no local public opposition to the proposals.

What was the reason for holding the referendum in the first place if the results were to be ignored by the council in such a cavalier fashion?

Ken Adams, near Knighton