It’s the County elections on the 1st May. Whatever your political persuasion or none, I hope you vote. Bad politicians get elected by good people who don’t vote, the saying goes. I’m pleased to say in the South Hams we have a history of a high turnout, one of the highest in the country. The one exception being for the Police and Crime Commissioner(PCC), but then could someone explain to me what is the point of the PCC?

The roll used to be fulfilled by the Police Authority. A group of elected councillors from the various councils. It cost considerably less than the £millions we now spend on a glorified public relations department. Maybe it’s different in other parts of the country but collecting chief constables, I think we’ve got three on full pay at the moment you can lose count, and then blaming everyone else why things are going wrong and don’t work seems pretty pointless. Why don’t we just spend the wasted £millions on putting bobbies back on the beat. It’s what people tell me they want.

Inclusive Council

Since taking control of South Hams in 2023 we have tried to be an inclusive council. This means we have representatives from all parties, including independents, in positions of responsibility. Both the leaders of the Greens and the Conservatives are on the Executive and fully involved in the decision making of the council. We don’t always agree, and many votes are not unanimous, but every voice is listened to and compromises where possible reached. We strive for consensus rather than the ‘we’re right, you’re wrong’ approach.

When I speak to people, they say they want us all to work together for the good of the communities rather than just dogmatically following the party line. This is what we are trying to do. I’m sure this will lead to a stronger council making better decisions. Whoever is successful in the county May elections, I hope they will follow this approach. We campaign to win the elections, but when the results are declared we are all councillors working to achieve the best for our communities. That will be the time to put our differences aside and concentrate on what binds us not what divides us.

Real Devolution

The County elections will probably be the last with the government’s intention to replace our two-tier system of district and county councils with single unitary authorities. It’s all part of the government’s devolution agenda which in principle I support. However, in practice things are looking a lot different. We have one of the most centralised governance structures in the democratic world, with decisions and diktats issued from the centre. Inevitably it leads to a one-size-fits-all solution with many square pegs being forced into round holes for such a diverse country.

Planning is a good case in point. Firstly, government has imposed top-down targets for housing numbers on us. Now they are looking to remove the voice of local people, expressed through councillors, from the decision-making process. I don’t know if they really believe that the planning system is the main block on house building but this blinkered approach won’t work. Far from listening to the councils it would appear they’re more interested in the concerns of developers.

Plans to give more powers to remote bodies while removing decisions from the democratic process and local people is not my idea of devolution. Fortunately, we are lucky to live in a democracy and this high-handed approach will not succeed. The government would do well to listen and take heed.