Unaccountable Regional Assemblies
March 22, 2005 by Ken
Filed under The Best of the Rest
Accountability of regional assemblies – Comment – Times Online
Accountability of regional assemblies
From Dr Matthew Portal
Sir, I share Mr Iain Campbell’s disquiet about regional assemblies (letter, March 15). I was recently sent a questionnaire by “Your Shout†on behalf of the South East England Regional Assembly. This apparently includes representatives from 55 district councils from Oxfordshire to Kent, as well as “representatives from business and voluntary groupsâ€, and is responsible for “regional planning, acting as an advocate for the region and holding the region’s development agency to accountâ€.
This seems to be a considerable amount of power and influence for the assembly to arrogate to itself, without the safeguard of being directly elected. If the assembly is an invention of EU bureaucracy (which is unclear from the information provided) I do not want such a body to hold anyone to account, let alone take a major role in planning and development in an already overcrowded part of the country.
I also see that there are plans on transport, waste and energy, that are “ . . . already agreed . . . to 2016 with Government, following earlier consultationâ€. Surely all voters might wish to have the opportunity to express a view — but at the ballot box, not through bogus consultation by an offshoot of the EU.
Yours faithfully,
MATTHEW PORTAL,
“Bogus Consultation” is the way of the EU, lacking any democratic legality as it does, it would like us to be stupid enough to accept that its consultation exercise are a satisfactory replacement for democracy.
