The Isle of Wight council’s chair has launched a fresh attack on the “speed and pace” of Whitehall’s devolution agenda, saying they “simply whitewash my objections”.
Revealing his correspondence with the Local Government and English Devolution Minister, Jim McMahon, Councillor Karl Love said “none” of the points he raised had been “properly addressed”.
East Cowes’s representative decried an “outrageously imposed timeline” for submitting expressions of interest to be included on the government’s fast-track devolution programme, in a letter sent to the Minister on 30th December 2024.
Carr-West: Countless hours were spent by council staff and elected members
As reported earlier by OnTheWight, Jonathan Carr-West, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit think tank said,
“Councils were given 16 working days to put their applications together for the Devolution Priority Programme.
“Countless hours were spent by council staff and elected members who worked incredibly hard over the Christmas period to meet this deadline.”
Love: ‘Good governance decisions’ must ‘never be rushed’
Councillor Love’s letter said ‘good governance decisions’ must ‘never be rushed’ and lamented a lack of time to involve Island town and parish councils in devolution discussions.
It said,
“This time frame is undemocratic in its application. Equality of opportunity and the right to be properly informed, consulted and for all the issues and questions to be properly considered, are denied in the pace and speed of requirement to respond.
“History informs us that when we rush or steamroller important matters through, mistakes happen, often having big consequences.”
McMahon: To drive this change, we need strong local leadership
Responding on 28th January 2025, Jim McMahon said,
“The English Devolution White Paper set an ambitious new framework for English devolution, moving power out of Westminster and back to those who know their areas best and who can better represent your Island community.
“Devolution is all about bringing decisions closer to the people affected by them and for those decisions to reflect local circumstances.
“To drive this change, we need strong local leadership and empowered institutions and we need to do this at pace.
“I recognise this was a challenging deadline, and only 60 per cent of England have a devolution deal. We want to increase that significantly as soon as practical.”
An ‘opportunity for further consultation’
Mr McMahon added he was ‘grateful’ to the Isle of Wight council for rapidly responding to its plan.
His letter also mentioned an ‘opportunity for further consultation’ with Island communities, councillors and local councils as part of the devolution fast track programme.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
