Yes, we’ve heard similar pledges before from the Tories but this one is quite unequivical - the Tory Shadow Cabinet member for Communities and Local Government has pledged that all regional quangos will be abolished should they win the next election.
On his blog, John Redwood says that Spelman has made the following pledges:
Unelected Regional assemblies [...]
The Chairmen of 6 regional assemblies - including the West Midlands Regional Assembly - have written a letter to the Times calling for them to be allowed to make regional policy even though their quango is being abolished.
Nothing wrong with suggesting that of course, but it is the dishonesty that shows just how desperate they [...]
The Midhurst & Petworth Observer reports that West Sussex County Council has decided to withdraw from the South East of England Regional Assembly (SEERA), the equivalent of West Midlands Regional Assembly (WMRA) in the south west euroregion.
West Sussex County Council leader, Councillor Henry Smith, said that from 2009 the £31,612 annual subscription to SERA would [...]
The petition calling on the British government to abolish the unelected regional quangos has had a disappointing response from one of the Prime Ministers’ PR guru’s.
The Government believes there are issues which extend beyond the boundaries of even the largest local authority, and that a regional approach is necessary to analyse and address the causes [...]
Yesterday we drew attention to the Stafford councillor who was complaining about the unelected West Midlands Regional Assembly’s (WMRA) plans for housing in Stafford.
The Worcester News had an article last month in which councillors from Worcester and Wychavon complained about the number of new houses they were being told to build by WMRA whilst councillors [...]
Mark Heenan, a Councillor at Stafford Borough Council, is complaining that the unelected West Midlands Regional Assembly is dictating to the council how many houses and how much office and industrial space must be built in Stafford.
This is a common complaint that we hear from councillors - they resent having to follow dictats from unelected [...]
