Ramsgate Independent KCC election candidate, Ian Driver, is calling for the abolition of KCC and arguing for its replacement by a new East Kent Coastal Council (EKCC).
“KCC is old-fashioned, expensive and out of touch with the needs of Ramsgate, Thanet and East Kent” said Driver, “ Being ruled from Maidstone by councillors and officers who don’t understand our problems, or appreciate our massive potential, means that we will never get a fair deal”.
“I believe that a new East Kent Coastal Council made up of a merger of Thanet, Dover & Shepway District Councils and possibly Canterbury City Council, should replace KCC. This is already beginning to happen. Thanet, Dover, Shepway and Canterbury councils are sharing services like housing, human resources, IT, planning. So why stop there? A new unitary council in East Kent could eliminate large areas of service duplication which will save taxpayers £millions”.
Most important of all said Driver “a new East Kent Coastal Council will be run by councillors and officers who live in the area and genuinely understand the needs of our communities and the possibilities for developing business opportunities and the talents of our people. This has got to be more effective than depending upon faceless bureaucrats in Maidstone”.
If I'm elected to KCC in May, my campaign to replace it with a new council does not mean that that I will sit back and do nothing for 4 years. Quite the reverse! I will be working hard on a broad range of County Council issues like regeneration, education, health and education.
Driver has also published an election blogsite which sets out his policies for the forthcoming KCC election http://vote4driver.blogspot.co.uk/
The real misfit in the governance layers is TDC.
ReplyDeleteWhilst a county council is desirable to deal with those county wide issues like highways and education, at a more local level, small, of the people councils in towns and rural parishes are much better able to achieve localism.
TDC is the expensive tier where councillors play party political games, give themselves exhaulted titles and get involved in national rather than local issues.
I rather suspect Ian Driver's motivation comes from the fact that he knows he is a no hoper for KCC, but he can hang on to his TDC seat and allowances at least until 2015. Hence, call for an end to KCC and let the poorly performing TDC continue to waste our money on politically motivated projects.
Tom I think you may have missed the point here, which is a unitary authority would replace both KCC and TDC, it is a move from two tier to one tier, although it would mean that parish and town councils would have more power.
DeleteI am not saying that it is the better option, certainly the problems at the moment are that KCC are perceived as being more centred on west Kent and TDC, well frankly words fail me.
Not missed the point at all, Michael. I am no fan of unitary councils embracing an even bigger district and my model would be to retain a county council for county wide issues and use town and parish councils for local. Having served on a small town council I know that politics is almost disregarded whereas with district, and certainly as far as TDC is concerned, it seems to dominate everything.
DeleteAh Tom I was assuming that you were talking about systems of government that actually exist and would be feasible under the local government act i.e. two tier; county and district or one tier unitary.
DeleteAs you are talking of your own model, I will leave you to it.