Member

Essex was founded way back in AD 527 by the East Saxons, so there have been one and a half millennia of Essex. Members can therefore understand why people in Romford in Havering—and, indeed, in other boroughs to the east of the River Lea—frankly do not understand why their identity has been taken away from them. That does need to be resolved, and I really hope that the Government will use this opportunity to deal with the ceremonial and historical boundaries, which would mean that the lieutenancies were reconfigured to make sense, and to give people back their local identity, especially, as my new clause 85 says, in Essex. Essex could lead the way, so that other counties can do the same.