A deficit in democracy?

Many of you will have seen press reports about the decision at a special Babergh Council Meeting last Tuesday to support the view that Suffolk should be split into two unitary councils, one serving the East and the other the West of the County. This is an idea in marked contrast to the view of the County Council, which would like to see a ‘One Suffolk’ solution. This would imply one large unitary council for the whole area.

(A unitary council by the way is one that carries out all of the public services currently handled by the County and District councils separately).

I spoke in the debate, taking a stance against the One Suffolk idea. I really do not think that the full implications have been thought through at the County level. In my opinion, although it might be the most cost effective scheme, one authority for the whole county would be far too large. It would serve a population that is already over 700,000 people and growing. Even if Waveney area is to be excluded, which is possible, the number would be close to 600,000.

I believe that it is instructive to look at the number of councillors per head of population that has been regarded in other areas as acceptable by the Electoral Commission. On average the number has been around 4500 people per councillor (compared with around 1500 per councillor in Suffolk at present!). This would imply a One Suffolk Council of at least 130 councillors, or possibly over 150 if Waveney is included. This would be approximately double the size of the current County Council. It is interesting to note that the largest unitary created so far has been Cornwall with 500,000 people, and the appropriate number of councillors for Cornwall is still in dispute.

Of course Suffolk councillors could be asked to look after even more people, and then the council could be smaller. In my view however this would lead to exacerbation of what is likely in any event to be a significant ‘democratic deficit’ as the number of county and district councillors in the county is dramatically reduced. To avoid this there will need to be significant strengthening of councils at the parish and town level, both from the point of view of resources and devolved power. Otherwise there will simply not be enough democratically elected people to be accountable for provision of the (hopefully) newly streamlined public services that a unitary council will provide. I am afraid there is little sign of reinforcement of councils at a local level coming from the Government at present.

I very much hope that the Boundary Committee, now looking at the options, will bear these factors in mind as it reaches its decision. By the end of July we should know what the preferred options are.