´óÏó´«Ã½

"The people of Norwich and Norfolk deserve better than this."

This week the House of Lords approved the orders to create a Unitary authority for Norwich.

Now only the courts or the election of a Conservative Government stand in the way of it happening.

The debate was an impassioned one. Baroness Shephard the former MP for South West Norfolk told the chamber: "It is impossible to imagine a more incompetent and unconvincing process than the one that has got us here."

Lord MacGregor, the former MP for South Norfolk accused the Government of living in a different world to most people from Norfolk.

While Baroness Hollis, a former Labour leader of Norwich City Council, claimed that: "Norfolk people not just Norwich people need a vibrant, strong unitary Norwich if they are not to be left behind."

It was all predictable stuff. And then the Bishop of Norwich rose to speak. The Rt Revd Graham James is very good at identifying what's really going on in a situation. He thinks very carefully before speaking out and he explains himself simply but eloquently.

The "misjudgements" of the boundary commission had created "unnecessary conflict" in Norwich and Norfolk he said.

Norwich was part of Norfolk and Norfolk was part of Norwich he argued - the two shouldn't be separated.

He questioned whether the plan would deliver strong Government; he argued that the boundaries of the proposed unitary authority were too small. "A significant proportion of those living or working in Nowich would not find themselves within the boundaries of the city. They would be in the City but not of it, or of the City but not in it."

Because of those boundaries, he said, four major secondary schools including the biggest in Norwich would end up still being run by the County Council.

"The process has been so mishandled that you would have thought the Boundary Committee and the Government wanted to ensure as much dissension as possible and aimed to build tensions between City and County."

And he concluded: "The story of the past three years has done little to build trust in our political processes or indeed faith in their transparency. Whatever the outcome, the people of Norwich realy do deserve better than this."

The Government won the vote. The Local Government minister, Lord McKenzie of Luton claiming the public consultation had been more than adequate.

"We are clear there are real benefits to the residents of Norwich arising from Unitary Status as well as real advantages to all the residents of Norfolk," he said.

The Bishop said he would work with whatever structure was in place but he's clearly not happy.

His speech clearly shone a light on the problems with Unitary Status. If it goes ahead, those promoting them could be well advised to take notice of what he said.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?