Harborough district leader asks why Deputy Prime Minister refuses to meet him despite insisting on Government ‘bottom-up approach’ to unitary plans
Harborough District Council leader Phil Knowles says the Deputy Prime Minister will not meet him to discuss government plans to ditch local councils, despite insisting on a ‘bottom-up approach’.
Cllr Knowles is calling on the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to meet him and discuss controversial plans to condense Leicestershire into one unitary authority.
It follows announcements by the Government that it wants all areas of the country to be streamlined to unitary authorities which would then be granted additional powers and potentially cash in a process known as devolution.
Cllr Knowles said: "The Deputy Prime Minister has made it absolutely clear from the despatch box in the House of Commons that local government re-organisation is a bottom-up approach and not a top-down dictate. If that is the case then why are we being forced to put in proposals to a dictated timeframe and why will she and her Lead Minister ‘Devo Man’ (as she calls him) Jim McMahon MP not agree to a meeting to discuss this with me as a district council leader in Leicestershire?
"I am calling on the Deputy Prime Minister to show her commitment to local communities and meet with me to discuss this important matter.”
However, he welcomed news that plans to cancel this year’s local elections would not go ahead.
He added: "It is also clear today that the Government do not support the county council in their request to deny democracy to our residents, I am delighted that our residents will now be given their democratic right to elect the representatives that they want at the ballot box this May. Our staff are now mobilising the election process and we will deliver elections as intended. Democracy is not being denied!”
He added the district was not ‘broken’ and the council’s latest budget plans were community focused including keeping green bin and parking charges the same, a new post to support flood prevention measures and a new 1million Community Grant Fund.
He said: "I look forward to hearing back from the Deputy Prime Minister and discussing how local government should be kept local."