Rural and Urban White Papers

Part of Prayers – in the House of Commons at 10:55 am on 26 January 2001.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Colin Breed Colin Breed Liberal Democrat, South East Cornwall 10:55, 26 January 2001

I entirely agree. As a former parish councillor. I welcome that £10,000. Parish councils have little infrastructure, so sometimes they cannot comply with bidding conditions. They welcome the opportunity to get the £10,000, but it is not always easy for them to get hold of it or to spend it. Over a period—perhaps 20 years—local government has been weakened. We need to reverse that trend.

There are so many hoops to go through in the bidding process, and so much time and effort must be spent, that only councils with the most energetic people are successful, so the money is not necessarily going to the most needy. Often, the areas of most need are the ones with the least chance of complying with all the bidding conditions. That is highly unsatisfactory. We should try to help parish councils to get hold of some of the money, so that they can spend it wisely for the people whom they serve. There are not enough people with enough clout on the ground in the local areas to get the schemes in place that would make a real difference to people's lives.

Late last year, the Government were forced to admit that the Countryside Agency—the very agency appointed to look after rural interests and to help to deliver local solutions to local problems—had been unable to spend most of the funds allocated to it for rural transport. That is a great shame, when we know that there are many opportunities for new rural transport schemes. The money is sitting there, waiting to be spent. Part of the reason is that we unreasonably expect local partnerships to have the expertise and time to go through all the hoops.

I hope that we will be able to support the rural councils, perhaps with some expertise from the Countryside Agency, so that they can make their bids and some of the money that has been allocated can be spent where it needs to be spent.