Durham and Northumberland unitary authorities start today

Apr 1 2009 by Dave Black, The Journal

The opponent: 'Still a real risk that it will be too romote from people'

WITH a huge rural constituency to cover Berwick MP Alan Beith was always a fierce opponent of the concept of a single council for the county.

He initially argued the case for the creation of three separate unitary authorities, but threw his weight behind the campaign for two – split along urban and rural lines – when his original idea was ruled a non-starter.

Now, with April 1 here and his own Liberal Democrat party in charge of making the new super council work, Mr Beith says he still feels there are risks the county will suffer as a result of the new system.

He said: "I would have much preferred smaller unitaries and the people of Northumberland voted clearly for the two-council option in the referendum held in 2004.

"It was fundamentally wrong, and in defiance of all principles, for the Government to then go for a single unitary instead.

"The difficulties we anticipated in creating such a large authority are those we are now having to contend with.

"There is still a real risk that this new authority will be too remote from people on the ground, and there is always the anxiety that there are not the people on the spot that there were before.

"I still believe that two unitary councils, one for Blyth Valley and Wansbeck and the other for the four rural districts, would have been the better option. It would have made things like equalising car parking charges so much easier than in one big unitary.

"Some of the claims about £17m efficiency savings and lower council tax bills with a single unitary were nonsense at the time and the public didn’t believe them.

"However, there is no point in fighting old battles now and we have got to make the new structure work. I am determined that we will do that, even though it is not the system I would have chosen. I commend the Lib Dem group at County Hall for their work so far.

"We have to devolve responsibility to town councils, such as those in Berwick and Alnwick, and give them a bigger role, as well as using the area committee structure.

"In addition, this new council is entitled to as much extra support from the Government as possible, bearing in mind our historic funding difficulties and the fact that the Labour Government imposed this system on us."