Less democracy and more cuts in phoney merger plan

Dispatches from the frontline of Planet Cameron

By Andy Slaughter MP

Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham councils have unveiled plans to merge some services and administrative functions.

If these proposals are to achieve economies of scale by sharing or merging administrative functions then that it is simply good practice which all councils should be doing at a time of financial stringency and the only remarkable fact is that these self-opinionated council leaders are making a huge fuss about something that should be normal good practice.

However the defensive tone of their statement and the Ruritanian-style “sovereignty guarantee” suggests that something much more worrying is happening here, as indeed it is. By concentrating sensitive and important decision-making functions such as adult social services and children services in one borough they are denying access to hundreds of thousands of people in West London, they are abandoning localism and they are seeking to bind the hands of future administrations who may well have different views particularly if they are of different political persuasions.

Once again this lies entirely contrary to the government’s rhetoric on devolution of power and it is something for which they have no mandate. It is already the case that elected opposition councillors and members of parliament from different parties are routinely denied information for political purposes and these steps are likely to increase the culture of secrecy that exists within these town halls.

Instead of axing the chief executive for Hammersmith, why don’t they reduce the salaries of all three chief executives by a third, particularly given they all earn more than the Prime Minister. The biggest con-trick in this document is the idea that this will in some way avoid frontline cuts. These three councils are national leaders in slashing frontline services; the paltry £1million they aim to save per council next year represents less than 5% of their total savings. What is actually happening in these boroughs is sale of community assets, closing Sure Start centres, demolition of affordable housing, closure of youth clubs, closure of libraries, with most of the cuts targeted at the most vulnerable: children and adult services.