Council opts out of regional body
March 8, 2005 by Ken
Filed under The Best of the Rest
BBC NEWS | England | Kent | Council opts out of regional body:
“Medway Council has withdrawn its membership of the regional assembly and is calling for others to do the same.
Council leader Rodney Chambers said the decision to pull out of the South East England Regional Assembly (Seera) will save the council £22,000 per year.
Mr Chambers said he felt the money would be better spent elsewhere and that Medway would still have a voice.
Seera’s chief executive said it was a matter of regret when a council decided to withdraw from membership.
This area is becoming a dumping ground for taking all the development in order to protect leafy areas
Rodney Chambers, council leader
Medway Council is a statutory authority which means it must be consulted before any development can take place.
But Mr Chambers said Medway cannot always be sure that the consultation will act in Medway’s best interest.
This is because the Office of Deputy Prime Minister and Seera can overrule the public’s views.
‘This area is becoming a dumping ground for taking all the development in order to protect leafy areas such as Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Surrey,’ Mr Chambers said.
He added: ‘Local authorities in the south east contribute over £700,000 for the luxury of sitting in this assembly and I could not justify our proportion of cost of this cost if it meant a reduction in services that we provide.
‘It’s a body that nobody really wants.’
Seera chief executive Paul Bevan said: ‘It is a matter of regret when councils decide to withdraw from the Assembly membership, whether it is for financial or political reasons.
‘The assembly is tasked with advising the government on important and difficult decisions about growth and investment in the South East.
‘Medway risks denying itself the opportunity for its voice to be heard in these vital debates.’
These Regional assemblies are part of the EU regional process, they are the embryos of local government which are designed supposedly to bring democracy closer to the people, and to strengthen the feeling of local government in the country as a sop to those who feel the loss of sovereignty as more powers are passed to the EU, all this and much more was highlighted in the FCO paper 1971.
It is interesting to see the basic outline of the Europhile arguments we are still hearing set out in such detail and shows the paucity of that argument as the same old lines are trotted out endlessly, it must be assumed that the hope is if these lies are repeated endlessly people will eventually start to believe….
SOVEREIGNTY AND THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
FCO 30/1048 – 1971
(ii) the transfer of major executive responsibilities to the bureaucratic
Commission in Brussels will exacerbate popular feeling of alienation from
government. To counter this feeling, strengthened local and regional democratic
processes within the member states and effective Community regional economic
and social policies will be essential.
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