What do you think?
Are you concerned about our National Parks’ future? Join the debate by emailing letters@westerndailypress.co.uk and including your name and address
opportunity for a fresh start. We strongly believe two new unitary councils is the right number for a county the size of Somerset.
These councils will be small enough, so they know you and you know them, but big enough to be effective and economic.
Our ‘Stronger Somerset’ plan for reform addresses the county’s needs now and into the future.
We must not allow this process to end up with a change of name above county hall, but no change of approach to the real challenges our county faces.
So, we encourage people to respond to the Government consultation online, by email at unitaryconsultation@communities. gov.uk, or in writing to Governance Reform and Democracy, MHCLG, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF.
We also wanted to let people know that we have told the civil servants running this consultation that in our view it is not fit for purpose.
We are not confident that this consultation will show the Local Government Secretary on which side of the argument local support lies – with ‘Stronger Somerset’ or the county council’s alternative plan.
The consultation is too narrow and the online questionnaire too obscure. Almost half of the organisations on the list named consultees published by the department do not serve Somerset directly and a good number of them are partnerships of Somerset County Council.
So, for example, Bristol City Council is being asked about the future of Somerset’s local services and representation, but not the hundreds of parish and town councils across our county.
So, please do have your say in whatever way you can, and we will continue to press for a far better and easier way for local people to show where their support lies. The voice of the people of Somerset must be heard.
Cllr Val Keitch, Leader, South
Somerset District Council Cllr Duncan McGinty, Leader, Sedgemoor District Council Cllr Federica Smith-Roberts, Leader, Somerset West and
Taunton Council Cllr Ros Wyke, Leader, Mendip
District Council
Club they helped start the world’s National Parks movement to protect our most sacred and precious landscapes to protect the soul of earth’s beauty.
Now this shambles of an ideological government bent on destroying every consensus of political imperative derived from our humane intuition wishes to take away the very essence of the British love affair with our natural environment.
And all for the sake of a Government controlled quango called Defra that has already had its independence and soul torn out if it.
Yes, there are very valid criticisms to be made of National Parks. A beautiful valley is worth protecting outside a Park’s boundaries as much as a valley within it.
But the National Park is so much more. It is a model for the integrity of the human culture that has found synthesis within the landscape, where local art and craftsmanship have been inspired since ancient times.
This is a wisdom where intimacy between human hand and natural materials and the life it sustains expresses a sentiment deep in our souls. Such feelings are an inspiration to all of us to protect, love and nurture all life.
This is real local democracy, where the pain of unfulfilled hopes and loneliness it perpetuates can be felt in our deepest feelings of loss.
But here the sense of the intangible of every living thing can awaken our deepest heart throb of yearning, revive our compassion into the deepest love. Thus providing the moral and ethical insights into our lives.