Issues remain after ‘super council’ vote

Is big beautiful? Or if it’s not, is it at least better? That’s the debate that up to 170 councillors were having last night as four councils, including Canterbury, decided whether or not to move towards a big merger. Of course, by the time you read this, you will know. The business plan for this enterprise was such that the numbers only stacked up with all four agreeing. Given their numbers would reduce by about 100, did the turkeys vote for Christmas?

However, with all four council leaders having already pledged their support, we’re guessing they have taken soundings among their groups and had done the numbers. If it’s been blown out of the water then it would seem to have been a whole waste of time.

There were calls in some quarters for a referendum, as opposed to a “consultation” and the inevitable cynicism that it’s a done deal. Given the magnitude of this decision and potential impact on local democracy, we have some sympathy with that view.

The cynics and sceptics will point to this simply being a cost-cutting exercise, which it is, of course – that’s the whole point. The councils have realised that under current financial arrangements they simply cannot continue to provide local services and satisfy public expectations and demand at the same time. We have sympathy with that dilemma, too.

Those issues remain regardless of the decision taken this week. However, it does raise another important point. Where does that leave local politics? How will our individual towns, city and villages be properly represented by people we know and who live among us?

There has been some talk, but it seems little appetite, for a return of town councils. This would simply add to bureaucracy and as much as we nostalgically remember the old urban councils, many became little fiefdoms that served its members rather than the public.

People are already disconnected with local politics and that may widen with any larger authority that may be inevitable regardless of what happens this week. There’s a vacuum at grassroots, filled in places by the admirable work of groups like Chek, but there are other local issues that are there to engage in. And you don’t have to get elected.