‘If you’re going to change things, change them for the better’ writes South Kesteven District Council leader Richard Cleaver
The impact of government decisions on local authorities is the focus of this month’s column by leader of South Kesteven District Council Richard Cleaver (Ind). He writes:
The final recommendations on new parliamentary boundaries were published last week.
The changes mean that South Kesteven will no longer be mostly represented by a single MP in the Grantham and Stamford constituency.
Instead, the four towns of SK will be spread across three constituencies – the new constituencies of Grantham and Bourne, and Rutland and Stamford, and the unchanged South Holland and The Deepings.
With no changes to the powers of MPs and no changes in the way they are elected, simply redrawing the boundaries of safe Conservative seats is not going to improve anything at a time when our political systems are in dire need of overhaul to make then fit for purpose in re-invigorating our country.
In local government, we face the twin challenges of devolution and local government re-organisation.
Whilst all has gone quiet on the latter for the moment, a devolution deal for Lincolnshire is very much a current live issue. This would transfer some existing central government spending in Greater Lincolnshire to be administered instead by a new local body in Greater Lincolnshire – but it won’t necessarily be new money.
When I look at the issues which people raise with me, none of them will be addressed by new constituencies and very few by a devolution deal.
Instead, people expect local politicians to be able to do more to improve both local NHS services and policing – and they also expect councils like SKDC to have greater freedom to run the local initiatives they think are appropriate, rather than the current slow and unreliable system of waiting for central government to come up with initiatives which require councils to bid against each other for a share of the funding.
So, let’s have some changes to empower us to deliver the things our residents want – just give us the tools and we will do the job!
