Written evidence to be reported to the House
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
4:30 pm
Gordon Keymer: No. I respond to their cries for help and advise accordingly. I believe in everybody having the right to do what they like. In an ideal world, I believe that there should be no laws. We would all be out of business, but it would be great. Working on that basis, therefore, it is up to people individually to decide what they want to do with their own authorities.
People come to me with particular problems. One interesting example was the concept that was developed of the three options: you had to go for unitary, under invitation, pathfinder, or enhanced status quo. That can be interpreted from the invitation, but it was read—and encouraged—bycertain people who wanted to go for unitary as meaning that you had to put in an application for enhanced status quo. This was going on right up to the very last days, running up to 25 January. Thanks to a helpful presentation to the Local Government Association by somebody from the Department for Communities and Local Government who, having been pressed by somebody who wanted to go unitary, said, “No, that is not the case”, I was able to say, “No, this is not correct.” It is those sorts of inquiries that I try to deal with.
One of the difficulties under the executive system, as opposed to the committee system, is that large numbers of councillors are unaware of what is going on at any particular moment. Advice was given on how they could tell their back benchers or front benchers, or whatever they are called now, how they could best handle these particular questions and try to spread a certain realism. I was getting questions both from county members—not just from Surrey, but from all over the country—and district members who were seeking clarification.