Second and third quotes of the day 11th August 2021

It is not a common occurence that I agree with Cumbria's Lib Dems.

But I do agree with their comments opposing the idea that Cumbria County Council should seek a judicial review of the planned new local government structure for Cumbria.

The county council has sent an intial legal notification called a "pre-action protocol" which does not actually start a judicial review but can potentially be the first step in the process - effectively servicing notice that the Cumbria CC is considering such a challenge. 

As has all too often happened over the past few years it would appear that the decision, while taken in the name of council officers, was actually a unilateral decision by the Labour leader of the council, Stewart Young, who does not appear to have consulted any other elected councillors. 

Peter Thornton, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Cumbria County Council, said: “We have just 18 months to create two new Cumbrian councils from the seven existing councils.

“The county council Liberal Democrat Group believe that we should be concentrating on this task rather than expending time and money challenging the Government’s decision.”

Lib Dem MP Tim Farron, said: “Launching a legal challenge against the reorganisation plans will be a waste of public money and time and I would strongly urge Stewart Young to reconsider.

“Liberal Democrats in Cumbria passionately believe that we should instead be focusing on serving local residents and concentrating on working on the issues that matter to them like jobs, schools, social care and the environment.”

Seeking a judicial review can only create more uncertainty and loss of morale among council staff while iverting attention from the challenge of building the new structure in a way which fixes some of the problems with local government in Cumbria.

Comments

Gary Bullivant said…
For what it is worth, I do too. But I also share the concern that to go for a "metro" mayor as part of the package is inappropriate. This should be a matter for the two unitary authorities to decide for themselves after they have been created. Watching Ben Houchen dive headlong into a matter that rightly belonged to one of the Teeside unitary councils, and making himself look like a bit of a plank in the process, was a topical reminder of the risks.

https://www.facebook.com/TeesValleyMayor/videos/563600601667576
1:59 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
A lot of people support building a Metro Mayor into the new structure - and I am one of them.

Howeverm as I understand the position the government plan to do exactly what you suggest and letting the new authorities decide whether to bid for a metro mayor when they have been elected in shadow form next year.
12:25 am
Gary Bullivant said…
A County Deal and a DE Mayor for Cumberland will serve us much better than a "Rural" Mayor based in Kendal or wherever. That's a discussion for later but there are meant to be elections in May. Is it fixed that the Wards will follow the CCC EDs with the number of Councillors per Ward used to ensure numerical equity? Or is there a WG somewhere tasked with proposing boundary changes to Mr Jenrick and Parliament?
8:35 am
Chris Whiteside said…
I certainly want to see a devolution deal for Cumbria and a metro mayor and hope the new authorities will agree to bid for one when they are elected in shadow form in May.

I believe this will have to be done on existing county divisions because they are the only consistent set of boundaries throughout the county which are in place now and there is not time for a rewarding exercise to be done for elections in May 2022.

The government has been talking to the seven existing authorities about options to do this. My preferred option would be to use the existing 84 county divisions as two-member wards in 2022, which would create two authorities about the same size as the present CCC, but then hold a full boundary review and come down from 80 or 90 members for the first term to about sixty for the second.

However, the possibility of using some sort of hybrid of borough and county divisions has not yet been ruled out, though I hope it soon will be. It is also looking quite possible that they will decide to elect one member of the relevant new unitary authority from each of the existing county divisions.
10:35 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the...
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more