12 years ago the local government commission said DCC and the District Councils should be abolished and we should have 4 unitary authorities. Poole and Bournemouth gained independence but rural Dorset was left unchanged fir some reason.
Do you think its time for a change now and that we would be better off with a unitary authority for this half of Dorset and another one for the west? Although counties have existed since about the time of King Canute county councils are one of those things the Victorians did for us and district councils were dreamt up in the 1970s when having multiple layers of organisation was all the rage.
Do you think it would be too distant? Do you think the existing arrangement works well enough? Have unitary authorities benefitted their populations?
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Posted by Anonymous to swanage view at 1/13/2006 07:28:14 PM
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NO! It seems to me that once Swanage lost control of its own area, our lot has suffered.
For example: the roads in and around Swanage are a positive disgrace. A pot hole main road and side roads. The road in some of the country lanes and roads our in the depth of Dorset are far superior to our main roads, Ours?they are in a hell of a state. That prompts me to ask.
Are we outvoted when it come to road maintenance?
Rowland Hughes says:
I really don't know what would be best, but it's clear that the present pass-the-parcel system of 3 separate councils, each one saying it's not their department or that they can't act without the authority or say so of another council tier clearly doesn't work very well.
Right Rowland.
I do get pretty sick of the "good old days" when Swanage was an independent principality and "we" i.e. the council ran our own affairs. Highways has been a county responsibilty since time immemorial, hence all those charming noticess on old bridgess threatening deportation to the colonies for anyone damaging them. Why dont you read the county council's minutes online if you think Swanage is getting a raw deal and write to Donald Hiett, the Swanage County Councillor.
Were things really better when Swanage had a council with more powers? The councillors and the officers were pretty much the same sort of people as they are now so unless their competence collapsed the day district councils came into being it must be the organisational arrangements that are the problem not the individuals. Can anyone remember what SUDC did really well? Did they simply have a lot more money? Was it because councils did everything themselves in those days and did not contract work out to whichever company put in the cheapest tender?
The straws in the wind have turned out to be true. There will be a White Paper in november. The minister, David Miliband says Districts Councils are to small to be strategic and too big to be local. Its hard to think of PDC being strategic without laughing.
Yesterdays Echo reported that Poole and Bournemouth are "almost certain" to be merged with the rest of Dorset becoming a unitary authority.
As for Swanage "controlling its own area" as one correspondent remarked, well, don't make me laugh. A Swanage industrial planning strategy, a Swanage education strategy, a Swanage transport strategy?
So remember, you read it here first.
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