I am grateful to my correspondents for contributing to the discussion about how many members Cornwall Council actually needs and how close this might be to the number it was born with (123.) I certainly accept that most councillors work very hard - but I'm not sure about the relationship between work-rate and the number of councillors.
There is no doubt that the job of the Welsh Assembly and that of the Scottish Parliament is somewhat different to that of Cornwall Council - but precisely how different? I can think of lots of similarities but only a handful of differences, of which Scotland's tax-raising powers and devolved responsibility for health and social policy are clearly the most important.
The really significant differences are at the bottom-end of the local government structure, where the Welsh and Scottish unitary councils carry far greater clout than the town and parish councils we have in Cornwall.
I wonder if Cornwall's town and parish councillors think that last year's re-organisation perhaps left Cornish local government rather lop-sided, with too many chiefs and not enough indians. If parish councils got more powers, would this attract a higher-calibre of candidate to seek election?
Am I being rude to even suggest that parish councils don't attract high-calibre candidates already?
No comments:
Post a Comment