Clause 24
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
6:15 pm
Michael Fabricant (Whip, Whips; Lichfield, Conservative)
I am motivated to speak in the debate partly because I am so fed up with hearing about Shropshire and Bedfordshire. It is about time we heard about Lichfield.
I am far too young to recall the last substantial boundary changes in 1973. I am told, however, that there was a major fight, because there was a Lichfield urban council and a Lichfield rural council. My hon. Friend the Member for Ludlow mentioned ceremonial objects. If you were to visit Lichfield now, Mr. Benton, you would find, in the small museum in the St. Mary’s centre, a huge amount of gold and other ceremonial objects that came from Lichfield urban district council. Incidentally, whereas the House of Commons has a so-called gold Mace that is actually just silver gilt,and pretty cheap, Lichfield has two solid gold maces—one from King James, and one, I believe, from King Charles II.
That was a digression. As my hon. Friend the Member for Ludlow said, we must consider how assets will be distributed, but I want to make a point that has not been made so far. There may, just may, conceivably be a time when it is in an area’s interest to have a unitary authority—not in Shropshire, we know that, but in some other area, though I can hardly imagine it.
I hope that the Minister can reassure people here. It would be very wrong if a local referendum were to say that we did not want a merger, because our assets—be they two gold maces in Lichfield or assets held in reserve—would be distributed among a whole series of spendthrift councils. A referendum could well end up with a nay vote, if the Minister cannot now with his golden tongue—if not golden mace—reassure the Committee that assets will not be distributed in a way that prevents the prudent council from benefiting from such a merger.