Unitary Suffolk incoming?…

I was, I admit, somewhat surprised when Creeting St Peter’s county councillor, Keith Welham, noted last Monday at our Parish Council meeting (which reminds me…) that the prospect of a unitary authority or authorities for Suffolk had reared its head again.

It shouldn’t come as a complete surprise, I guess, because the argument that multiple tiers of government are less financially efficient than one has been around for a long time. But it’s a brave government that commits itself to a major reorganisation of local government, especially this early in its mandate.

And, having read the article in The Times yesterday (and no, I’m not linking to it), it strongly suggests that there will be a single Suffolk unitary authority, based on the suggestion that Jim McMahon, the Minister for Local Government, has concluded that an authority serving no less than 500,000 or so is the minimum likely to succeed.

This is not my first rodeo, nor is it Suffolk’s though. Plans to replace six District, one Borough and one County Council at the tail-end of the Brown administration fell in part due to the fact that there was no agreement on what represented a viable size for an authority, that the Minister, Hazel Blears, seemed to have no consistent policy on that point and that both opposition parties were clear that they’d reject any such proposal. It did not end well, with much effort and some resource wasted in the process.

What I didn’t really appreciate then, but do now, is the impact on the relationship between a Parish Council such as mine, and the principal authorities that we have to interact with. We become increasingly remote from the levers of power, and a lot of effort will be required to establish an effective working arrangement with a larger, further away, County Unitary. And, if they withdraw from discretionary service provision, whilst a town or large village might be willing to step in, how does my community, with an annual budget of less than £6,500, do the same?

But, if the Government are serious about (effectively) imposing such a solution on Suffolk, they will inevitably find a way of doing so. My fear is that, instead of one financially struggling County and five junior Districts/Borough doing alright, we’ll end up with a Unitary authority that, as has been the case in places like Somerset, increasingly withdraws from all but mandatory services for lack of funds. And that is not an outcome I look forward to with anything but dread…

Suffolk Local Government reform - it’s like deja vu all over again…

The news that an incoming government has decided to cancel the proposed devolution deal for Suffolk is not entirely a surprise. After all, we’ve been here before…

In 2009, a rather rushed attempt at creating Unitary Authorities ran hopelessly into the sand, partly because Hazel Blears, the then Minister, couldn’t stick to a consistent line on what the requirements for a coherent Unitary authority might be, and partly because the then mostly Conservative-led Districts were loathe to give up their positions and powers. Having tossed the whole mess back to local politicians, the incoming Coalition government shot the whole thing down in one of its earlier decisions.

And, in a rather fine example of history repeating itself, the Conservative-proposed Devolution Plan for Suffolk has been snuffed out within weeks of the new Labour government being formed.

Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mourn either decision. The Unitary proposals were designed to protect Labour’s position in Ipswich, knowing that any Unitary that took in the surrounding (Conservative voting) rural hinterland made it less likely that Labour would retain control, and cynically overlooked the guidance on the optimal size of a Unitary.

But, at the time (and even then local government finances were beginning to be squeezed), a two-Unitary arrangement for Suffolk offered some genuine opportunities to reduce spending in such a way as to protect frontline services. Alas, it was not to be.

The devolution deal which emerged last year was, unsurprisingly given the people responsible for it, astonishingly low on detail and appeared to be the Suffolk equivalent of the plans for a hyperspace bypass as referred to in Douglas Adams’s “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”. Whenever I asked my District and County Councillors what they knew of it, there was a fair bit of head shaking - which might have reflected the fact that Creeting St Peter had carelessly elected opposition councillors - but no real information.

Eventually, the County Council deigned to offer a briefing to Town and Parish councillors, presented by the Deputy Chief Executive, Stephen Meah-Sims. Had he not evidently decided to basically read the Council website to us (and yes, I checked in real time that he was doing so), it might even have been useful. As it was, there was a great deal of “the Council could do this or that” but no detail of any value. And besides, whilst the headline numbers looked significant, when you realised that they were intended to cover a thirty year period, the value of the proposals made it look as though the local Conservatives were only to happy to sell themselves cheaply.

In terms of governance, the proposed directly-elected leader appeared designed to create gridlock, especially in the light of the then political picture. The idea of directly electing someone to lead the County Council but to have a County Council that might have a majority of opposition councillors appeared absurd and there never was an answer to the question when put.

And now it’s dead, and whilst it won’t be mourned by many - the local Conservatives are obviously outraged - there is still a challenge ahead for all concerned. The County Council is being rapidly drained of its reserves - the free reserves are currently expected to run out by the end of 2026-27 - and with adult and children’s social care costs spiralling (the Council Leader’s words, not mine) and SEND provision becoming an increasing worry, any consolidation which allows the redirecting of funds to frontline services will be welcome.

Meanwhile, the District Councils have rather healthier finances. Mid Suffolk, my old stomping ground, is financially comfortable, ironically due to a successful investment in commercial property by the previous Conservative administration. That might suggest that any enthusiasm to use the healthier District finances to bail out the services currently run by the County might not be there to be exploited.

However this story ends though, with County Council elections due next year, and the outcome, at least in Suffolk, hard to predict, whoever forms the next administration is going to have some difficult questions to answer...

General Election 2024: what happened in Suffolk

So, Ipswich set aside, how did we get on across the county last week?

I guess that we probably ought to go clockwise around the county town so...

There's no doubt that Tom Bartleet, our first time candidate in South Suffolk, clearly enjoyed himself, running something of a guerilla campaign, and I know that a lot of effort went into it. There may have been a bit of tractor driving too. But a seat that, according to some of the MRP data out there, was predicted to go Labour or Reform, was always going to be a tough nut to crack, and the result showed a narrow improvement in our position, increasing our vote from an notional 12.7% to 13.2%, good enough to beat the Greens for fourth in an area where the latter have done quite well in local elections in recent years.

South Suffolk was unusual in one respect, in that it saw the only successful candidate seeking re-election across the whole county in James Cartlidge, whose majority shrank to just 3,047, with a 18.3% swing from the Conservatives to Labour. Interestingly, the Labour vote didn't increase by that much - 7.5% - which might be explained by their almost total lack of a local government base across the constituency, one District councillor and no County councillors. That'll be a recurring theme here...

West Suffolk has been something of a black hole for Liberal Democrats in recent years, and the idea that Nick Timothy, whose efforts for Theresa May did so much to boost her popularity, might not win here was absurd, right up to the point when the exit poll was announced. I'd expected Reform to do well, given that their now former Vice-Chair, David Bull, was the candidate, but not sufficiently so as to overturn an enormous notional majority. But, again, Labour edged up enough to get within 3,247 votes, based on their support bases of Haverhill and Newmarket. They do at least have councillors in those towns, but little support anywhere else across the heathlands.

As far as we were concerned, Henry Batchelor managed to increase our vote by 0.2% to 9.3% which, given the likelihood that we would be squeezed by the "big three", must be seen as a decent outcome, and again we beat the Greens for fourth.

The first shock of the night was Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, where Will Tanner, Rishi Sunak's Chief of Staff, managed to shed almost half of the Conservative support from 2019 and lost to a Labour candidate who certainly wasn't on their list of battleground seats. It's fundamentally the seat that Labour got within 368 votes of winning in 1997 but faded away almost entirely over the next two decades.

Peter McDonald managed to save our deposit in a seat that we'd ceded to the Greens in 2019 as part of the "deal" we did with them, and I'd have taken that at the outset. The Greens will have been disappointed to have fallen back a little, but the next result would doubtless have made up for it.

Waveney Valley Labour were telling anyone who would listen that they were the prime contenders to take this newly-created cross-border seat from the Conservatives, putting out a bar chart suggesting that the Greens would come fourth. That was never going to happen, but I found it hard to believe that Adrian Ramsey and his crew could overcome the difficulties of a large rural constituency without much in the way of major (or even minor) centres of population. They were certainly determined though, and having apparently swallowed whole the entire library of 1990s ALDC literature, they knew what they were doing.

They squeezed the Labour vote from 18.6% to 9.4%, and the Liberal Democrat vote from 9.2% to 2.5%, a performance that any of our campaigners would have been proud of, and you have to say that, if Adrian does what we would do if the positions were reversed, his 5,593 majority might last a while.

A year ago, Lowestoft would have been seen as a Labour banker. The shrunken boundaries of the seat relative to its predecessor, Waveney, took a swathe of previously Conservative territory out, leaving the rather battered port town at the heart of what was left. The only catch was that it was fertile ground for Reform too, and with next door Great Yarmouth going turquoise, you wouldn't have bet against the same thing happening further south. But Labour managed to come from the left and win the seat with just 34.6% of the vote. Adam Robertson was caught in the squeeze, with a lost deposit and 3.6% of the vote the final tally.

Ah, Suffolk Coastal, a seat that was hard to call, not just because of Therese Coffey's stunning levels of unpopularity, but because it really wasn't obvious who to vote for to beat her. The Greens and the Liberal Democrats both have a decent presence at local government level, whilst Labour had the potential advantage of a national swing. I'll admit that I thought that Dr Coffey would hang on but her vote share crashed to an astonishing 29.5% and Labour's Jenny Riddell-Carpenter sneaked home by just 1,070 votes.

Julia Ewart, fighting the seat for a second time for us, ran a gallant campaign but the tide ran against her, leading to a 1.1% fall in our support. I still think that 14.1% gives us something to build upon, and it will be interesting to see what happen in next year's County elections, given that Labour will have to fight territory that has been pretty stony in recent years if they're to build support for a 2029 defence.

And that leaves Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, which I had seen as the most likely Conservative loss given that it includes the north-western part of Ipswich, which lean Labour at the best of times. And, if Kevin Craig hadn't been caught betting against himself, it might well have fallen. But, in the absence of a campaign, and given that betting against yourself is generally frowned upon, Patrick Spencer held on by a relatively comfortable 4,290 on a turnout of 76.5%. Labour will certainly have their eye on that going forward but it was interesting that all five serious contenders gained 11.7% of the vote or better. Brett Mickelburgh dragged our vote up to that 11.7% level, and whilst fifth place doesn't look great in itself, it's a respectable performance in a constituency where the Greens are an entirely credible alternative.

So, no trees torn up by the Liberal Democrats across Suffolk, but we made a little progress across the county as a whole, saved six of our eight deposits, and can take vicarious pleasure in the success of Pippa Heylings in South Cambridgeshire and Marie Goldman in Chelmsford, the two constituencies where our activists were directed as part of the regional targetting strategy.

Attention now turns to next year's County elections, where a number of plot lines will collide. Will the Conservative vote collapse again, leaving opportunities for Labour, the Greens and ourselves? Will Reform play a significant part in the campaign or will their weakness in terms of local organisation offer relief to the Conservatives? How will Labour get on in rural Suffolk without the advantage of an overwhelming air war in the absence of an activist base?

We shall see, but the work for 2025 is already underway...

Haughley Junction upgrade: good news for Suffolk rail users

The announcement that some of the money to be saved by not finishing HS2 will be spent on doubling the tracks at Haughley Junction, just north of Stowmarket, where the line to Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge and Ely parts company with the East Anglian Main Line, is a welcome one, even if one has serious reservations about the axing of HS2, as I do. It's been a much-needed upgrade for a long time, as it acts as a limitation to freight and passenger traffic using this key route from the container port at Felixstowe to the distribution warehouses of the Midlands.

As a rail user myself, the prospect of an hourly service between Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, Ely and Peterborough, as well as capacity to link Suffolk into the East West Rail project offers easier access to the rest of the country, rather than having to pass through London all of the time.

I hadn't realised, however, that the Haughley Junction upgrade is budgeted to cost just £20 million which, given the cost of widening the A14, is buttons. In that sense, it's disappointing that this didn't happen rather earlier. I guess that a safe Conservative seat isn't a huge priority for transport spending.

Hopefully, increasing capacity across Suffolk will encourage the transfer of container traffic off of the A14 and onto trains, and a half-hourly train service between Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds, serving the towns and villages in between, will encourage more people to travel to both whilst leaving their cars at home, or at their nearest station.

The next thing would be to double track the line from Kennett to Cambridge or, at the very least, improve the approach through Cherry Hinton to Cambridge. Perhaps that will come, and I'm sure that MARPA will be campaigning for further improvements.

2021 County Council elections - looking beyond Mid Suffolk...

So, time to take a wider view of events in Suffolk...

Beyond the boundaries of Mid Suffolk, we entered the elections holding County Divisions in Woodbridge, St Margaret's and Westgate (Ipswich) and Peninsula (think the triangle of land between the Stour and Orwell estuaries).

We'd lost Peninsula before we started, as the sitting Liberal Democrat and former Group Leader, David Wood, had retired, and the seat wasn't even defended - it went to the Greens.

Woodbridge stayed resolutely Liberal Democrat, with Caroline Page scoring 63.5% in a two-horse race against the Conservatives, leaving St Margaret's and Westgate as a potential gain - we held both seats for the first eight years of its existence (2005-2013) and Inga Lockington has managed to fend off both Labour and Conservative opposition to hold one of them ever since - the second seat went Labour in 2013 and Conservative in 2017. Sadly, whilst Inga's personal vote held up nicely, the new Conservative candidate retained her seat and Oliver Holmes came fourth, behind one of the Labour candidates.

Elsewhere, there were respectable second places in Belstead Brook, Blything, Kessingland and Southwold and Stour Valley, but otherwise there wasn't an awful lot to get excited about. The Liberal Democrats are now the fourth party of Suffolk politics at County level, with Suffolk County Council now constituted as follows;

• Conservatives - 55 seats (plus 5)
• Greens - 9 seats (plus 6)
• Labour - 5 seats (minus 6)
• Liberal Democrats - 4 seats (minus 1)
• West Suffolk Independents - 1 seat (no change)
• Independent - 1 seat (minus 4)

The votes received were as follows;

• Conservatives - 124,969 votes (48.0%)
• Labour - 56,223 votes (21.6%)
• Greens - 39,283 votes (15.1%)
• Liberal Democrats - 25,885 votes (9.9%)
• Independents - 11,723 votes (4.5%)
• West Suffolk Independents - 1,959 votes (0.8%)
• Communist Party of Britain - 293 votes (0.1%)
• Burning Pink Party - 168 votes (0.1%)

The Conservatives did what you might expect, given that the polls favoured them, in increasing their grip on the County. But, whilst they achieved a net gain of five, two of those were merely regaining seats where the sitting Conservative councillor had been deselected and "gone rogue". They also took five seats from Labour, penetrating Suffolk's equivalent of the "Red Wall". However, they lost four seats to the Greens (Beccles, Halesworth, Stowupland North & Stowupland and Thedwastre North) and swapped seats with the Liberal Democrats (Gipping Valley for Stowmarket South). They did at least remove the last trace of UKIP from the County Council.

It was a pretty disastrous night for Labour - reduced to five seats in Ipswich. It's not their worst performance - they won just four in 2009 - but it's pretty close. Once upon a time, they held seats in Lowestoft, Haverhill, Stowmarket, Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury, all now an increasingly distant memory. In the rural Divisions, they are all but irrelevant, and it's hard to envisage a repeat of 1993, when the Conservatives were caught in a vice between Labour in the towns and the Liberal Democrats in the villages.

It's probably fair to say that the big winners were the Greens, trebling their number of the County Council from three to nine, and now the official Opposition, should they choose to end the partnership with the Liberal Democrats and Independents that existed before these elections. They have a few promising second places which might drive their strategy over the next four years, but they, like the Liberal Democrats and Labour grow weaker as you travel westwards across the county. Where the opportunities to really challenge the Conservatives come from is not easily spotted... yet.

The obvious route for the combined opposition is a "progressive alliance", but, as is usually the case, it is impossible to envisage Suffolk Labour taking such an approach - they still don't play nice, even in their current state. It probably wouldn't mean too much risk from their perspective, they're not competitive in much of the county, yet they run candidates who achieve little other than to make the Conservatives harder to beat, especially now that there is no other right-wing competition to chew away at their support.

Next year is a year off for most of Suffolk, with only Ipswich due to hold elections (it's a "thirds" council, before the Districts are all up in 2023. Will the Conservatives retain their current popularity, or will there start to be a gentle whittling away of their support post-Brexit and post-Covid? Will meaningful opposition emerge in the villages? That remains to be seen...

So, you're thinking of moving to Suffolk...

It seems, from today's East Anglian Daily Times, that many of you are. That is, if you currently live in London. Now, having made the journey myself a decade or so ago, I can entirely understand it - some charming countryside, decent beer, good food and, above all, house prices that allow you to sell your house in the suburbs, replace it with something with a bit of character and bank a large chunk of cash to spend on having a good time.

It was not long after I moved up here that the Evening Standard ran one of those regular features, you know the type, "Why not live in...", suggesting that Needham Market was the sort of place where you could commute into London. Given that Needham Market last had a direct train service to Liverpool Street in heaven knows when, the connection at Ipswich could be a bit dicey and an annual season was of the scale of "How much? You are kidding, right?". You wouldn't, and even now very few do.

Now, a season ticket from Stowmarket comes in at over £8,000, and your job really does have to be a good one to justify that, and the three hours plus you'll spend each day commuting. But, if you can get the salary and not commute...

And that's what's happening. Heavens, even my usually cautious employers in central government are suggesting that I may never need to work more than three days a week in a big glass and steel box. I suspect that, if I can demonstrate that I'm as effective at home as I am in an office, I may not even need to do that.

So, we're seeing a steady flow of people who have seen the possibility of escape from the endless London suburbs and realise that, for the price of building a small garden room to use as an office, they can get a nice home, a chunk of money and a bit of extra time to spend on family, friends or just kicking back. And Suffolk is close enough so that, if you do have to go into London occasionally, it doesn't feel like so much of a burden. The seaside isn't far, there's plenty of open countryside. What isn't there to like? We even have opera.

Taking my example, not commuting into Ipswich gives me back about seven hours a week and about £2,000 in travel costs. Not commuting into London would be about seventeen hours a week and £9,000.

And, to give you an idea of the property options that Needham Market has to offer, here's something on the High Street. £475,000, Grade II listed, four bedrooms, it even has a Needham Market Society blue plaque. There's a decent pub across the street, the station is two minutes away, and buses to Ipswich stop almost outside the front door (the bus stop has a stone plaque to mark the Diamond Jubilee... of Queen Victoria).

Don't all rush...

Suffolk Liberal Democrats select Justice campaigner as their Police & Crime Commissioner candidate

I don’t normally reproduce press releases here but I’ll make an exception for this one...

Justice campaigner and former Parliamentary Candidate James Sandbach has been selected as the Liberal Democrats’ candidate for the upcoming Police and Crime Commissioner election in Suffolk.

James has been involved in Suffolk politics for several years having been the Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate in Suffolk Coastal (2015 and 2017) and Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (2019). He lives in Saxmundham where he is Town Councillor.

Professionally, James has an active background in the voluntary sector, the justice system and the challenges it faces – over the past 15 years he has worked for leading national charities Citizens Advice, the Legal Action Group, and LawWorks (the solicitors pro bono group).

On the upcoming election, James said;

I am delighted to have been selected to be the Lib Dem PCC candidate for Suffolk. The PCC has an important role in supporting our fantastic local police force, and ensuring the policing needs of all of Suffolk’s communities are met.

Since I moved to Suffolk, I’ve been struck by the ever-diminishing emphasis on community policing – police numbers down, local stations closed, and the thin blue line stretched far too thinly. I strongly believe that when it comes to fighting crime, anti-social behaviour and low-level disorder, prevention and deterrence is always the best approach but to do that well there must be a strong bond between the police and local communities, accessibility, and a visible presence. 

I’m looking forward to talking to communities across Suffolk about their concerns and my priority will be to fight for better funding and resources to support the police in the vital work they do in the community.

I wish James good luck in the months ahead...

Local Tories break the code of omerta

It's fair to say that, traditionally, I've not been a huge fan of the local Conservatives. Indeed, there is some evidence to suggest that I'm not alone - many of the county's Conservative MPs had rather faint, if any, connections to Suffolk prior to being selected, which might lead one to guess that the locals aren't that highly rated within the wider Conservative Party. But, they tend to win elections regardless of the weight of talent available, or the campaigning zeal displayed - Suffolk is that kind of place, I fear.

Our own County Councillor, for example, doesn't campaign outside of election time, doesn't report back and probably could pass unnoticed by 95% of the population of Stowmarket North and Stowupland. If that's what the public want though, that's what they get.

But today's news that a number of senior Conservative councillors have been apparently defenestrated by their own members in advance of next year's County elections in favour of presumably fresh new faces does come as a bit of a surprise.

Colin Noble is something of a marmite figure in West Suffolk. Personally, I think that he's a bit of a bruiser albeit an occasionally thin-skinned one. He didn't seem to like the fact that, when he referred to me as the husband of Ros, I responded by referring to him as the husband of Lisa. He became leader of the Conservative Group on the County Council after what was described as a bruising contest, and lasted three years before being overthrown. And now, he's been deselected by his local Conservative Association, having lost his District seat in 2019. But, regardless of what I might think of him, he is a "big beast" in local Conservative politics, having held senior positions in the regional party structure.

Jane Storey has gone too from Thedwastre North in Mid Suffolk. Funnily enough, she lost her District Council seat in 2019 as well - to the Greens - just when she might have become Leader of the Council (the former Leader had lost his seat to us earlier in the day).

And last, but not least, as far as we know so far, Guy McGregor has gone in Hoxne and Eye. In fairness, he's been around for a long, long time, having initially lost his seat in the great Tory rout of '93. He hasn't exactly seen eye to eye (not an intentional pun, I hasten to add) with his MP, Dan Poulter, over the years, but then he's apparently not alone in the Central Suffolk and North Ipswich Conservative Association.

How do I know all this? Because it's all over the East Anglian Daily Times which, in turn, means that people have talked. And it's unusual, given that incumbent councillors normally go at a time of their choosing. And they certainly haven't chosen, if the story is to be believed, because they've all appealed against the decision.

Now, regardless of what I think of them individually, I have no idea how effective they've been at County level, although the bar isn't always set terribly high. And I also know how difficult it is to find candidates, even where you're likely to win without much effort - being a councillor is hard work in terms of the sheer number of meetings you have to attend, let alone casework, Parish and Town council meetings to attend, etc. etc. So, presumably, the Conservatives have found someone else, someone able to meet the criteria laid down by their selection process rather better than Colin, Jane and Guy. Or, alternatively, the Suffolk Conservative leadership have decided that they've got to go, and the local Associations have quietly complied.

But, regardless of what I think of their policies, they have attempted to serve the people of Suffolk to the best of their ability, and that should always be respected, regardless of who, and where. At a time when politics, and politicians, are pretty widely derided, those who are willing to give their time and energy to public administration should be thanked.

That said, next year's elections could be difficult for the Conservatives across Suffolk. In 2019, it seemed that voters would, if given a credible alternative, vote for it over the Conservatives. That was certainly the story in Mid Suffolk. And, with the impact of Covid-19 on employment, and the uncertainty of what happens after 31 December when Brexit becomes a reality, being a Conservative candidate could be a very uncomfortable experience.

This might turn out to be a very good election to sit out...

A sunny September stroll on a Saturday in Suffolk

One thing that has made the restrictions of the pandemic more tolerable is that, here in Suffolk, there’s plenty of space, and not so many people. And those people that are here seem to be more likely to practice social distancing and behave in a manner more considerate of those around them. That’s an observation based on my personal experience, and not a statement of fact though.

There are also plenty of places to walk, but today offered a rare opportunity to enjoy the grounds of Euston Hall, the family home of the Dukes of Grafton. It’s only generally open for a few days a year, and we’d only spotted the dates last week when driving through Euston on the way back from Felbrigg Hall. And, with the money raised from ticket sales going to a good cause - various local charities via the Suffolk Community Foundation - it seemed like an enjoyable way to spend a hour or two.

And the grounds are lovely, in part laid out by John Evelyn - yes, the diarist - in the seventeenth century, and developed further with water features by Capability Brown. They’ve been restored by the current Duke and Duchess, and a fine job they have done too.

Normally, there’s a tearoom and access to the Hall, but in these times of pandemic, neither option was open to us although, it must be said, we’re rather keener on the walking and scenery than in the insides of grand houses. And so it was that, having finished our stroll around the grounds, we drove the short distance to Wyken Vineyards for coffee.

There are a surprising number of vineyards in Suffolk, and the proprietors have made this into an attraction, with a very good restaurant, the Leaping Hare, an outdoor market, a shop for your wine needs and the sort of decor stuff that you might not actually need but impulse buy. From the outdoor market, we picked up some rather nice sourdough bread from Wooster’s Bakery in Beardwell, and some beer from the Old Felixstowe Brewery Company.

Coffee drunk, we headed back out, stopping only to buy a couple of bottles of wine and eat ice cream (well, we’d have only been at a National Trust property eating cake...) from Spoonstruck. If you happen to be in Cambridgeshire, their ice cream is extraordinarily good, if the apple cinnamon I had was anything to go by. Oh, and yes, the woman who sold it to us was wonderfully generous and entertaining.

So, all in all, a rather nice day out. Must do this more often...

That’s a nice County Council you’ve got there... pity if something happened to it...

It’s been a decade since the demise of the last attempt to restructure local government in Suffolk, when some of the dying breath of the Labour Government was wasted on a futile attempt to persuade the local political leadership to agree on a new structure. It was, in truth, doomed to failure, with the Labour leadership in Ipswich never likely to quietly accept any settlement that minimised their prospects of power, plus a whole bunch of Conservative District Councillors unwilling to abolish themselves. One of the first decisions of the Coalition was to kick the idea as far into the long grass as possible.

Ironically, as Ros noted at the time, with District Councils increasingly coming under financial pressure, the resulting mergers and pooling of back office functions acted as a gradual but inevitable driver towards larger councils - St Edmundsbury and Forest Heath combined to form West Suffolk, whilst Suffolk Coastal and Waveney came together to form East Suffolk. And yes, you still had three tiers, but the outline of possible new unitary authorities was, and is, emerging.

But financial pressures continue to mount, and the pandemic has driven all local authorities closer to crisis. The lurking attraction of creating unitaries becomes ever more alluring - a former Finance portfolio holder at County level, Richard Smith, estimated the financial benefit at £80 million - and harder to resist.

I do get the arguments against it - the loss of local representation, the difficulty in campaigning for insurgent candidates, the challenge to councillors in getting around their larger patches and to grasp the issues across multiple parishes, to name but some. But, ultimately, you have to ask the question, “do you want any locally supplied services beyond the statutory ones?”. And, regardless of what some might wish, the public do want buses, libraries and much else besides.

The challenge for towns and parishes is how to stay relevant when more remote from the principal authority. What opportunities will there be to take on service provision and can they be accessed in an á la carte fashion, depending on the size and ambition of the Town/Parish? Lowestoft, or Stowmarket, will be much more activist than, say, Creeting St Peter or Darmsden.

My sense is that, given the Government’s suggestion that authorities covering a population of 300-400 thousand people work best, Suffolk’s future is, ironically, its past - the recreation of East Suffolk and West Suffolk, based in Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds respectively. Dividing the county into Greater Ipswich and “Rural Suffolk” risks creating one authority lacking in cohesion and another made up of an inner urban area in conflict with a more rural doughnut surrounding it.

So, we’ll see how this goes. I suspect that the political leadership in the county haven’t really progressed in their thinking on the subject, but that they’ll end up being driven, either by a centralising Government that firmly believes in centralising things, or by financial necessity, into restructuring. It might not be pretty for any of us...

A Suffolk Circle via the Stour Valley

I had set aside today for some internal Liberal Democrat stuff but, for reasons beyond my control, it was cancelled. What to do instead on what turned out to be such a lovely day?

Well, another bus ride seemed like a good idea, as Ros was speaking in the Agriculture Bill debate and really didn’t need my presence. And, having dropped me off at Needham Market, it was time to pump some more money into the public transport sector.

I hadn’t actually ridden on a train since the original lockdown, so the short journey to Ipswich seemed like a gentle introduction, and Greater Anglia’s shiny new trains are still pretty quiet, meaning a stress-free journey. People are wearing masks for the most part, which is reassuring.

My plan was a mite high risk, with some tight connections for buses that run every two hours, but as I’m an optimist, what was the worst that could happen?

Beestons run one key bus service in Suffolk, route 91, which links Ipswich with Sudbury, via Hadleigh. It’s a pretty journey, heading west through the undulating countryside that is south Suffolk and, at the end of it, is Sudbury, a town that I quite like. Yes, the planners haven’t done it any great favours, as is often the case in Suffolk, but the core is nice and the setting equally so. You could argue that its lousy connections to London have protected it - there’s no direct train service, and the connection at Marks Tey is unreliable at best.

I had time for a gentle stroll around the town centre before possibly Suffolk’s best bus ride, the Chambers operates 236 route to Clare, via Glemsford. The upper Stour Valley is glorious at this time of year, still green and rolling, with small villages hidden away and always a new vista to enjoy. Sadly, I had a very short connection at Clare, which rewards a walk, with the castle and the country park which includes the old railway station, for I needed to get to Haverhill.

It might be harsh to suggest that Haverhill is seldom a place where people feel a need to be, unless they live there. That’s probably because it’s a town surrounded by 1950s and 1960s housing, built for an outflow of Londoners at that time. Lovely, it isn’t, although compared to some recent social housing builds, it at least has some community spirit and has aged well enough. Mind you, sunshine tends to make most things look better...

I had another very short connection at Haverhill, to a Stephensons of Essex operated route 18 bus to Saffron Walden - a very different kettle of fish. Saffron Walden is genteel, middle-class, with a town centre Waitrose and all the things that go with that. The railway station is at Audley End, so that it doesn’t get too crowded. You’d almost forget that you’re in Essex. The bus runs through Helions Bumpstead, one of those villages whose name must be made up, mustn’t it?

A snatched lunch in Saffron Walden allowed me to catch the hourly Stagecoach bus to Cambridge, following the railway line through Great Chesterton, Whittlesford and Shelford, through a series of villages that probably benefit from their proximity to Cambridge.

It was time to head for home now, meaning a rather longer train ride on a rather busier train. I did have a four-seat section to myself as far as Bury St Edmunds, where college had let out. The teenagers sitting opposite me needed a reminder to cover their noses with their masks, but did at least have sufficient thoughtfulness to adjust them when asked.

So, all in all, another nice day out, although if the passenger numbers are anything to go by, it could be “ride the bus whilst you still can”, as I increasingly wonder how they can remain economically viable.

Local Government reorganisation - we couldn’t have Gipping Rural District back, could we?

 

Call me a hopeless romantic if you will, but I have to admit that I’ve grown fond of local government in a way that, had you asked me two decades ago, I would have snorted with derision. Perhaps that’s the difference that being a councillor at the very lowest tier of local government makes, even though my ambitions at any higher level are, at best, dormant these days.

Suffolk currently has three tiers of local government - County, Borough/District and  Town/Parish. Not so long ago, we had seven local authorities forming the second tier - Babergh (think South Suffolk), Forest Heath (Newmarket and Mildenhall), Ipswich, Mid Suffolk (Stowmarket and the hinterland), St Edmundsbury (Bury St Edmunds and Haverhill), Suffolk Coastal (Aldeburgh and Felixstowe) and Waveney (Lowestoft). All just a bit too small to be effective, not entirely well run and drifting towards obsolescence.

As the squeeze on local government finance began to hurt, it became clear that amalgamation was an easy way to cut costs, with Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury eventually merging to form West Suffolk, and Suffolk Coastal and Waveney merging to form East Suffolk. That left Ipswich, whose Labour leadership had no desire to be subsumed into a larger, likely Conservative leaning authority, and Babergh and Mid Suffolk who, having gone down the road of merging back office functions, were unable to persuade the voters of Babergh that full merger was acceptable. And that’s where we are now.

The Government, having indicated a desire to create new, larger authorities, covering a population of 300,000 to 400,000, imply a future of two unitary authorities, East Suffolk and West Suffolk, as the alternative - Greater Ipswich and Rural Suffolk - is likely to please nobody much. And, in truth, given the likely financial savings, it seems like a logical, possibly inevitable, outcome.

There is an irony there, in that, until 1974, we had... East Suffolk and West Suffolk. Below that, as the map indicates, we had a curious miscellany of County Boroughs, Municipal Boroughs, Urban Districts and Rural Districts, with Creeting St Peter falling within the Gipping Rural District. Prior to that, the 1934 local government reorganisation saw the merger of the East Stow (including Creeting St Peter) and Bosmere and Claydon Rural Districts. East Stow wasn’t big, with a population of about 7,000. Heavens, I could have been a councillor there...

In truth, I probably tend towards the view that a coming together of smaller authorities is likely to free up resources for public services rather than administration, although that view might not be wholly shared by local Liberal Democrats. On the one hand, larger wards take local councillors further away from those that they represent, whilst on the other, how many people can identify their local councillor(s) anyway? The romantic in me appreciates the personal touch, the pragmatist the financial benefits that economies of scale bring.

We’d probably end up with two Conservative-led authorities but, given that all but Ipswich are currently Conservative-led, what is there to lose? And, if our ultimate goal is to protect existing services and, one day, provide new ones, then the financial savings matter - the Golden Age of local government finance is receding into the rear view mirror (if it ever existed).

The trick will be to find ways of including the Towns and Parishes in a new structure where powers are devolved to those Councils that have the scope and/or wish to take responsibility, probably the Towns at first with larger Parishes following thereafter. Here in Creeting St Peter, I suspect that little will change - how much responsibility could a village of 275 souls realistically take on? - but even here, there might be things we would want to assume control over one day.

Unfortunately, regardless of how you organise local government, you need competent councillors to set the strategy, monitor delivery and assume responsibility, and the evidence is that it’s getting harder to attract good people. In Mid Suffolk, Liberal Democrats have been fortunate in that those who have sought election and been successful have generally been solidly committed to the communities they represent, and of enough talent to hold administrations to account. But it gets harder every year to attract fresh blood - a lot of work is required to win an election, and even the local Conservatives find it difficult to find enough candidates, despite the expectation that they will get elected on the basis of their blue rosette.

So, less councillors might make things easier for a while, and buy time sufficient to make the life of a local councillor that little bit more attractive, a little bit more accessible.

We’ll see though. An attempted reorganisation just before the 2010 General Election ran into the sand when Labour threw their hands in the air and suggested that it was all too difficult. Persuading a bunch of Conservative councillors that they should accept abolition quietly may be equally problematic...

Liberal Democrats in Suffolk - how did it go?

Let's be honest, had there been any prospect of a Liberal Democrat gain in Suffolk, we'd have been in 1906 territory, but you do have to look forward some of the time, especially after a night like this one just past. And, if things go as badly as some suspect, Conservatives in local government may be the first harbingers of public unhappiness. And maybe, just maybe, if we do things better, we might persuade the electorate to turn to us.

So, how did we get on?

I'll start in Waveney, now part of East Suffolk District Council, as it has been a bit of a black hole for us for some years despite the gallant efforts of a small hardcore of activists. Our vote there over the three elections since 2015 has gone as follows;

• 2015 - 1,055 votes, 2.0%, fifth place (out of five)
• 2017 - 1,012 votes, 1.9%, fifth place (out of six)
• 2019 - 2,603 votes, 5.1%, fourth place (out of five)

We did save our deposit, which is great news, and it is a very "brexity" neighbourhood, with Lowestoft at its core, and thanks to Helen Korfanty for flying the flag.

Heading to the other end of the county, West Suffolk has no Liberal Democrat Councillors at County or District level, following retirements in 2015. Our vote there has gone:

• 2015 - 2,465 votes, 5.0%, fourth place (out of five)
• 2017 - 2,180 votes, 4.2%, fourth place (out of five)
• 2019 - 4,685 votes, 9.1%, third place (out of four)

That's not a bad result from Elfreda Tealby-Watson, who must be getting used to the place by now, having fought the seat on each occasion. And, another saved deposit.

We have a presence in Ipswich, with a county councillor and three borough councillors, but as it's a key marginal, voting Conservative in 2015, Labour in 2017 and now Conservative again, we tend to get squeezed;

• 2015 - 1,400 votes, 2.9%, fifth place (out of five)
• 2017 - 1,187 votes, 2.3%, fourth place (out of six)
• 2019 - 2,439 votes, 4.9%, third place (out of five)

Bad luck for the returning Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett, who was forty votes short of saving our deposit, but selflessly led campaigning teams to Cambridgeshire to support our more likely prospects there. Thanks, Adrian, you were a star.

Next, I turn to South Suffolk. I've always felt that it was the sort of seat where, with the right combination of candidate and activist base, Liberal Democrats could win. But, for whatever reason, we don't. This time, we improved quite sharply;

• 2015 - 4,044 votes, 7.8%, fourth place (out of six)
• 2017 - 3,154 votes, 5.8%, third place (out of five)
• 2019 - 6,702 votes, 12.5%, third place (out of four)

David Beavan has dragged us back towards respectability, but it's a far cry from the 30.8% we achieved in 2010.

I can see Central Suffolk and Ipswich North from the end of our lane, and it's another seat where we had a solid vote prior to the Coalition, but not since;

• 2015 - 3,314 votes, 6.1%, fourth place (out of six)
• 2017 - 2,431 votes, 4.3%, third place (out of five)
• 2019 - 6,485 votes, 11.5%, third place (out of four)

I'm pleased for James Sandbach, in that he seemed to enjoy the campaign, and was a fine ambassador for Mid Suffolk Liberal Democrats.

The last seat contested was Suffolk Coastal, which probably saw more activity than in recent years past;

• 2015 - 4,777 votes, 8.6%, fourth place (out of five)
• 2017 - 4,048 votes, 7.0%, third place (out of five)
• 2019 - 8,719 votes, 15.0%, third place (out of five)

The Jules Ewart campaign was certainly busy and prominent, and there's definitely something there to build upon going forward.

You'll notice that I haven't mentioned Bury St Edmunds, my own constituency. We were stood down in favour of the Greens as part of the Unite to Remain alliance. I can't say that it went down all that well, but sometimes you have to compromise in search of an over-riding goal. The Greens came third, with 15.7% of the vote, and it's probably one of their best results in the country, but as Jo Churchill ended up with a majority of 24,988, it probably didn't affect much.

So, looking at it in the round, we're back in third place across the county, and whilst that might not seem like much of an achievement, it is at least progress in the right direction. Our vote share increase averaged out at 5.4% across the six contested seats, slightly better than the Party did nationally, and we averaged 9.7% in terms of vote share, a bit behind the national performance, but a reflection of the relative weakness of the Party in sleepy Suffolk.

Setting aside the Police and Crime Commissioner election, our next county-wide contest is the County Council election in 2021, which will be fought on new boundaries. Here in Mid Suffolk, our strategy is pretty obvious, I suspect, but it might be worth paying some attention to the boundary changes. The consultation phase ends next month...

Suffolk - where self-help means doing something you’ve paid someone else to do...

I’d be the first to accept that, when money is tight, a steadfast reliance on local government to do things for you is probably unwise, unless, of course, you have little choice. However, it is a step beyond that to ask lower tiers of government to take on duties that you’re levying a tax for, but keeping the money.

And that’s the case with what is charmingly called Suffolk's Community Self-Help Scheme.

Suffolk County Council, like so many other local authorities, is seeking to make savings, and apparently, has a mere £120,000 per annum available for highways work other than basic maintenance. So, they’re seeking support from Town and Parish Councils to fill the void. The Community Self-Help Scheme is described as a response by the County Council to requests to empower and support town and parish councils across Suffolk to carry out small local maintenance tasks in their communities.

Now set aside the fact that, as a Parish Council, we’d really rather not do that, but they explain that;

The limitations on local authority budgets means that Suffolk County Council prioritises its funding and its focus on maintaining a safe network for all users. As a result, we are not able to undertake the extra works which town and parish councils would like to see being done to maintain and improve the look of their areas.

Now, you’re probably thinking what I’m thinking, that would be things like traffic calming, or something vaguely infrastructure related. But no, they go on to provide a handy list of the range of works that Town and Parish Councils might like to take on;

• Sign cleaning
• Fingerpost cleaning/painting/repair
• Tree pruning/branch removal
• Hedge cutting/pruning
• Siding out of footways, or paths (removing encroaching grass and weeds)
• Grass verge cutting
• Weed killing/weed removal
• Developing verge reserves

It is my understanding that Suffolk County Council will retain legal responsibility for maintaining the road network to a satisfactory standard, a point they emphasise;

Suffolk County Council, as the highway authority, has a duty to uphold and protect the rights of the public to use and enjoy all highways for which it is responsible. 

Suffolk County Council, as the highway authority, remains bound by statute (Highways Act 1980) to maintain the highway network in a safe condition. The County Council sets out in its policies the level of service it will provide to discharge its duty to maintain.

So, why should I, or my fellow parish councillors, seek to take up their generous offer? After all, if anything were to go wrong, and volunteers found to have carried out the work in a manner considered inappropriate by Suffolk County Council (who have every incentive to pass the buck), we become liable - Suffolk County Council require the signing of an indemnity should we seek to do any work.

I’m not sure that I see the benefits outweighing the risks to the Parish Council.

Funnily enough, I did once clean a road sign in the Parish, as it was annoying me, but if I had had to fill in a bunch of paperwork, and ensure that the Parish Council had £5,000,000 worth of public liability insurance, I’m not sure I’d have bothered. In truth, I have no idea how much that level of public liability insurance costs, but it’s an additional cost, and duplicates the insurance that Suffolk County Council already hold.

And does anyone really expect that a Parish Council, run by volunteers, can achieve the same economies of scale as a County Council, with its trained professionals and lawyers? Consider me a sceptic.

So, I may sneak out and clean the odd road sign in future. But it may be in the guise of a concerned citizen, rather than as a parish councillor. You can’t be too careful, after all...

Ros in the Lords: East Suffolk (Local Government Changes) Order 2018

It’s not all Brexit glamour in the House of Lords, and whilst most attention is on the series of defeats inflicted on the Government with regard to the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, the business of government limps along otherwise.

Here in Suffolk, the various District and Borough Councils have been pairing off in an attempt to staunch the financial bleeding, merging back office functions, creating joint teams covering planning, council tax collection, and all of the various things done at sub-County level. Waveney and Suffolk Coastal have sought to merge into East Suffolk, whilst St Edmundsbury and Forest Heath aim to merge into a new West Suffolk District. To do so requires authority from Parliament, and thus the appropriate Orders, allowing them to proceed, came to the Lords recently.

Usually, these go through without much comment, but there were questions about the quality of the consultation, and thus then Secondary Legislation Select Committee raised some concerns. And, to be honest, the consultation did look a bit lopsided, with many of the voices in favour coming from other (Conservative) Leaders of neighbouring, or in the case of Suffolk County Council, overlapping authorities. Parish and Town Councils didn’t seem to be quite so keen, and in that context, Ros spoke in her capacity as a resident of Suffolk...

My Lords, I also speak as a Suffolk resident of almost 40 years, although not of either of the areas covered today. I am a former district and county councillor in Suffolk so I have a keen interest in this. 

I have always advocated unitary government for Suffolk, perhaps going back to the old, two-council days before 1974, or possibly 1973, with serious devolution to the towns and parishes which want it. I felt that way because I truly believe that service delivery would be better if we brought together planning and transport, for example, under one council. Local people would not have to sort out which council does what. As a councillor, I know that that is a significant issue. The financial savings that can be made from creating unitary councils have been well established across the country where this has been done. 

Opposition to my view has always been on the grounds of saying, “Well, district councils are important because they’re small and they’re local and the wards are small. Everybody knows everyone and they’re close to the people”. I buy that; I can see that argument. However, it seems that in merging these councils—I am talking about councils as opposed to their back-office functions—big wards will be created and the council offices will, in many cases, be moved away from the area they represent. The advantages of districts are lost without the benefits of unitary government. Bins will still be emptied by one council and the waste disposed of by another, for example. 

I remain concerned about that. I accept the point that Suffolk councils have been in the process of merging their back-office functions to save costs for some years now. That is entirely sensible. However, my council in mid-Suffolk, having done that with the neighbouring authority of Babergh, has now gone completely mad and moved its joint offices to the middle of Ipswich. There is no local connection there. If you are going to defend three-tier local government on the grounds of local connection, you have to show local connection. 

I am worried that all this is being driven by the parlous state of local government finance in this country, rather than some sort of rational, thought-out plan. It feels as though people who live in Suffolk are somehow not being properly engaged with—I will come back to ​that—or brought along in the process. It was interesting that the Secondary Legislation Committee shared some of those concerns. I appreciate the trouble that the Minister has gone to to allay those. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work to do—to be charitable—to convince people in Suffolk and in town and parish councils that the proposals will work. 

To give what I think is an important piece of context, the report that went to Waveney and Suffolk Coastal District Councils on 14 March 2016 stated: 

“The potential benefits and pitfalls of unitary local government have been well rehearsed previously”— 

through LGR—and, 

“have not been reproduced here. It is uncertain whether the new Secretary of State will be open to such discussions … Similarly, this could not be done in any format without … an impact upon Suffolk County Council. It is assumed at this stage (and without any discussion with the County Council) that this would be strongly resisted”, 

by the county council. In other words, in East Suffolk at least, this was kicked off in 2016 without really knowing what the Secretary of State or the county council thought. 

With regard to the support to which the Minister referred, the problem was that nobody ever had a say about the benefits of unitary councils—which I think, had it been put as an option, would have been more significant—but that did not take place because a unitary authority had been ruled out. 

This continues to be a model. On 21 March this year, the leader of Suffolk County Council announced that he had commissioned a report from ResPublica to look at options for local government in Suffolk over the coming years. This afternoon, the local press are reporting that he has suspended this work, saying that it is because his opponent in a leadership bid is opposed to it. I have no idea whether the second part is true but it shows, given the importance of local government to Suffolk and the services that it delivers, that it deserves better than this.

Some thoughts on Ipswich Town, courtesy of an outsider....

I ought to declare my (lack of) interest straight away - I’m a Luton Town supporter, more in the technical sense than the “turning up in rain or wind” one. My life is too complex, and the journey too much hassle, to be anything more than an interested observer. But, living in the heart of Suffolk as I do, the one thing that you can’t help but notice is the place of Ipswich Town in community life.

It perhaps does help that there isn’t an acceptable, credible alternative for some distance. Norwich City are beyond the pale, except perhaps in the borderlands towards Diss, and the other two teams near the county’s edge, Colchester United and Cambridge United, are irrelevant.

But it never ceases to surprise me just how many people I run into who either are season ticket holders, or were at one point or another. And given that, for some time, they’ve been relatively ordinary - no current Championship team has been there longer - being a Tractor Boy (or Girl) is not an easy option.

If the Town are doing well, the town and county seem a little sprightlier, if not, then their failings are a matter of general debate.

But it’s only little old Ipswich, population 130,000 or so, hardly likely to be able to compete at the top level in the modern era. Well, not so, as I’ve already hinted, for they are a county team, as much as a town one, with a hinterland of nearly 750,000 to draw on. And in a corner of the country with little sporting heritage to call its own, the football team is an important emblem.

In recent years, the team struggled, and seemed to be on its way to the oblivion that is League One and away trips to Shrewsbury and Fleetwood (no disrespect to either is meant, but older Ipswich fans still have treasured memories of European nights), until Mick McCarthy was brought in to steady the ship.

To that extent, he was successful, and, for six years, kept Ipswich afloat on the cheap, with little money to spend. The problem was that the football itself was mostly hardworking rather than entertaining, and the fans aspired to better. My colleagues didn’t demand success, but they did want some attacking football and a bit of quality, and that never seemed to come.

It does need to be borne in mind that, compared to a number of other Championship teams, with their parachute payments for Premiership failure, or wealthy owners willing to spend, Ipswich have become relatively poor relations, and similar sorts of teams - Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers, for example, have fallen further and harder.

As a result, I’ve been modestly sympathetic to McCarthy, because bringing a new man in with a mandate to be a bit more positive is fine, if it goes wrong, someone who can shore up the defence and scrap away will be in demand pretty quickly.

But we’ll see who ends up being unveiled as the new manager. If they seem promising, they might reverse the recent downward trend in season ticket purchases, and improve the fairly negative atmosphere that hangs over Portman Road these days. It might even make Ipswich (and Suffolk generally) a happier place...

Merging Suffolk Councils - a glitch emerges...

I must thank Ros for bringing this to my attention, and the noble Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope for bringing it to hers.

Times are tough in local government, and Suffolk is no exception to that. In the absence of any agreement on forming unitary authorities for the county, the District Councils have paired off to combine services, Waveney with Suffolk Coastal, St Edmundsbury with Forest Heath, and Babergh with Mid Suffolk. Inevitably, I guess, that has led to proposals to form merged authorities, West Suffolk to cover St Edmundsbury and Forest Heath, East Suffolk to cover Waveney and Suffolk Coastal. Consultations have taken place, and the Parliamentary Orders have reached the House of Lords.

There, they have been considered by the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, which has concerns... Here’s the summary of what they have to say...

These instruments provide, respectively, for the abolition of Suffolk Coastal and Waveney districts and their district councils, and for the creation of a new East Suffolk district and council which covers the same geographic area; and for the abolition of Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury districts and their district councils, and for the creation of a new West Suffolk district and council which covers the same geographic area. 

The Government’s own criteria for council merger proposals include the demonstration that any such proposal commands local support. There is no doubt that the merger proposals for East and West Suffolk are seen favourably by a number of local stakeholders. At the same time, however, significant numbers of residents and, it seems, parish councils have voiced concern about, and opposition to, the proposals; and it may be questioned whether the opportunities provided for such views to be expressed have allowed enough scope to opponents to voice their concerns and have them properly recognised.

It is, naturally, a decision for the full House to consider, but it would be unusual for the Committee’s advice to be disregarded.

I have been unimpressed by the consultation by Mid Suffolk and Babergh thus far, which as reported, has generated a favourable reaction from those surveyed. Of course, what information has been given to respondents is an interesting question, and one that somebody might like to pursue. And it wouldn’t entirely surprise me if the quality of the consultation in East Suffolk and West Suffolk hasn’t been equally sketchy.

It’s worth reading the Committee’s report in full though, and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government’s briefing, which forms an Appendix.

Personally, I think that moving to unitaries is inevitable - provision of services is probably more important to voters than the intangible benefits of having local authorities closer to the level of residents. But if you are going to consult, and you should, you should do it properly. It is, after all, our choice as to how our money might be spent.