Letter: It’s High Time We Had A Unitary Authority In Charge Of All Local Services

Published on: 16 Jun, 2013
Updated on: 17 Jun, 2013

From Gerald Bland

I applaud Cllr Juneja for voting in accordance with the majority view expressed to her by her electors. If that is a product of Burpham having a neighbourhood forum we could do with a few more manifestations of localism without the birth pangs the forum suffered.

Anyway, I am happy to have a £10 bet with David Smith that Aldi will either not appeal or that the appeal will be unsuccessful.

But I don’t want the Aldi debate to distract your readers from the Local Plan. Here my major concern is not the ability of the community to influence the outcome but the ability of our Borough Council to deliver what the community say they want. You only have to look at the development policies in the adopted 2003 Local Plan to see how few of them became reality in the ensuing ten years.

How then does our Borough Council deliver more homes when the children living in them require new schools? How do they also deliver more shops when new roads are needed to enable the public to get to them? And how do you get your staff into new offices from outlying areas by bus or train? With responsibility for the provision of education,roads and transport being dealt with in Kingston or Westminster can the Local Plan ever be anything more than a letter to Santa ?

It’s high time our Borough Council became a unitary authority so education, roads and transport fell within its portfolio and Millmead could really begin to make a difference.

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