Written evidence to be reported to the House
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
4:30 pm
Gordon Keymer: I think that it is very important that every district, county or whatever is free to choose. I can only speak from my own experience. An authority may wish to change for a number of reasons. It could be concerned about service delivery, but I do not want to enter into a debate about the services provided by the two tiers. However, I know that districts are very worried about it. I think that certain aspects of that issue are very important, so much so that I wrote a paper on trying to resolve the famous problem—I do not think that it exists, but it is often raised—of the question of public confusion.
I suggested that a way of resolving the problem was to do, if you like, a telephone test. If a person had a problem—it could be with refuse, or it might be a pothole—they would ring a local councillor or, in other circumstances, a local district councillor. I am sure that we can reach an excellent way in which to operate. Where problems are more strategic or technical, such as with education and social services, a person would ring their county councillor. That problem has caused difficulties in various areas, and I can understand why some authorities would want to go down the unitary track. I regret that, because I take Mr. Burt’s point that authorities are heading for very serious problems when they go through that process.
There is another issue. With some cases, there is a hope that by going unitary and hoping the bid will be accepted by the Government, all the cards will be thrown up in the air, and the new stack will be so new that all the authority’s financial problems will be resolved in a minute. Of course, they will not. However, the new regime will be able to blame it on the old one.
There are various reasons why councils may apply to become unitary. I do not believe that it is a good idea, because I find that the two-tier system works well, and I worry about representation for local people in a large authority.