Local Government in Norfolk
Posted by Brandon Lewis, MP for Great Yarmouth, at 16:02, Tue 2 November 2010:
I spent much of today sitting on the Bill Committee for the local government 2010 bill, this bill was the final chapter in the sorry tale of the Labour government plans to force a unitary authority onto Norfolk via Norwich.
It is very frustrating to listen to Labour MP’s talk about Norfolk and Norwich when they do not have an MP there nor could any of them confirm they had been there, though last week one did admit to making some calls to Norwich!
Their figures and details do not actually add up, as their advisers when they were in government told them. Every group who had looked at the issue had said that a unitary Norwich did not make sense and the impact it could have on the rest of Norfolk including Great Yarmouth was unqualified. It is good that this is all now at an end we have saved the proposed £40million set up costs of the project.
The debate in the chamber on this was last week and can be seen via this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FJ4JajEp6I
Comments
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Posted by STEVEN CLARKSON, 19:41, Tue 2 November 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #
Didn’t seem like much of a debate The lady MP behind Brandon was clearly more interested in twitter or whatever she was doing on her smart phone. most of the others looked bored shitless. Keep up the good work
Posted by Brandon Lewis, 09:16, Wed 3 November 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #
It was odd. No Labour MP closer than Luton could comment and in the committee stage it was even more odd as thye kept stating things that were factually incorrect. It was a low attendance as it was a small bill and had the focus of only the affected MP's plus there was no division so most MP's were not needed. At least it is all over now and we can move forward without the huge cost of implementing it.
Posted by CHRISTOPHER HARBORD, 11:06, Wed 3 November 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #
What a shame that time had to be wasted in a slow death of the issue. Glad it is now over. Great Yarmouth was really better when it was more independent. Was it a "County Borough Council"?
Posted by Brandon Lewis, 11:43, Mon 8 November 2010: (Is this post abusive?) #
Labour wanted a Norwich Unitary, leaving everything else as is, which was madness in terms of ecnomics and local management. Much better to simply encourage the Districts to work better together to find shared service savings but keeping local identity etc.