Member

As somebody who has been through a unitary and who devolved many powers to both town and parish councils, and set up a parish council in the great city of Salisbury, I know it takes time and that lower-tier authorities have differing capabilities. Some of them just do not want the powers and I worry about imposing anything on those who either do not have the capability or do not want to do it. I encourage the Government to look at those local services being delivered by the town and parish councils that are there. As a unitary authority, I did not want to run parks and gardens: that was not what our authority was built to do. I think that local people should be running those very local services. Who puts up the flower baskets in the summer? Who looks after all the street furniture? All that sort of thing is important for local people to be involved in and have responsibility for. Most unitary authorities I know of are very happy that those things are done locally but with financing from the local authority. I worry about it being in statute that it has to happen, as I have said.