Localism - Not a Good Start

8.00.00am GMT Mon 15th Feb 2010

"Tory 'Localism' is a sham" says County Councillor Stephen Cooksey.

The new Conservative administration, following David Cameron's lead, has now proudly proclaimed a conversion to "localism" (the devolution of decision making to the lowest level) which is a complete reversal of the policies of the last Conservative government. However the first test of the new approach revealed that not much had changed.

In their budget agreed on 9 February, the administration completely removed the capital allocation for highways which had been for many years devolved to Local Committees, reduced by 25% the Local Member Revenue Allocation which is used by County Councillors to support local projects and organisations and abolished the Capital allocation devolved to members and Local Committees for the same purpose.

Only a last minute reprieve prevented the revenue allocation to Local Committees for highway repairs being cut by 50%. The result is that Local Committees and local members will now have significantly less influence over local decisions than they have had in the past.

Councillor Stephen Cooksey said "This proves that the conversion to 'Localism' is the sham that it was always destined to be. Liberal Democrats will seek to expose this even more clearly in the coming months by bringing forward plans for genuine devolution to Local Committees and local members."