The so called Devolution process taking place in Devon and Somerset right now, is an totally undemocratic and possibly unlawful transfer of power from local authorities to a quango of unelected and unaccountable business people called the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership.
Their meetings are held in secret and their minutes are not published. They control £4 billion worth of grants from the government and the EU and have spent millions on Hinkley C power station. These are the people, nearly all property developers and construction CEOs who are writing the devolution bid for Devon and Somerset. Whilst local councils have their budgets slashed to a point they can barely function, the LEP enables enormous construction projects and is pushing for the building of 179,000 new homes, which are not affordable.
Local people are being shut out of decision making processes altogether while the responsibility for care homes, roads and house building is passed over to this opaque and remote quango, whose only goal is growth at the expense of everything else.
February 23, 2016 at 6:54 pm
Martin,
Your link for the petition doesn’t seem to be working in Firefox
Anita
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February 24, 2016 at 6:42 pm
Anita, it seems to be working in Safari. I don’t know what to suggest except Google it?
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