01-20-2025, 07:45 PM
The Liberal Party is appalled at government plans to abolish May’s local election’s and dismantle local democracy in the wake of its devolution white paper, only released on the 16th of December 2024.
The current planned devolution of power would see district and county councils merged to create over-sized unitary bodies with an average size of 500000 residents. These structures would be far removed from the communities they should be serving and reduce local accountability and oversight.
Previous re-organisations of local government have not resulted in cost savings and the party views this is further centralisation by the back door.
The party believes that all the problems that are being continually discussed at the moment in Social Care, Health, Education, Policing etc are the result of empire building at the expense of communities.
The local government areas requesting the suspension of May’s local elections are Derbyshire, Devon, East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Thurrock, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire.
The Liberal Party believes in community politics and local representation and would welcome enquiries from concerned residents within these areas who have a desire to server their local communities and would be willing to stand in May’s elections as Liberal candidates.
The current planned devolution of power would see district and county councils merged to create over-sized unitary bodies with an average size of 500000 residents. These structures would be far removed from the communities they should be serving and reduce local accountability and oversight.
Previous re-organisations of local government have not resulted in cost savings and the party views this is further centralisation by the back door.
The party believes that all the problems that are being continually discussed at the moment in Social Care, Health, Education, Policing etc are the result of empire building at the expense of communities.
The local government areas requesting the suspension of May’s local elections are Derbyshire, Devon, East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Thurrock, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire.
The Liberal Party believes in community politics and local representation and would welcome enquiries from concerned residents within these areas who have a desire to server their local communities and would be willing to stand in May’s elections as Liberal candidates.