Chance to restructure should be taken now

Currently, we have three tiers of local government – country, district and town or parish. West Sussex County Council has 98 councillors, Arun District 56, and if you add together all the members of town and parish councils in Arun alone, there are a further 209.

All these councillors form committees, which need venues, clerks, legal advisers and reports.

Just counting the cost of councillor allowances and expenses alone, these come to more than £2m a year, the county council taking the lion’s share of £1,288,864 in 2009/10.

It is difficult to understand who is responsible for what. Just look at the difficulties some town and parish councils are having with the county council’s contractors just to attach Christmas lights to lamp-posts (Gazette, November 4).

We should take this chance to reorganise using a few clear principles. We should have decision-making structures which are as understandable, accountable and as localised as possible.

We should look at removing one tier of council altogether. There should be enhanced powers and town and parish councils who seem to be more in touch with their communities.

If the county was abolished, leaders of districts could still meet with a small team of officers to progress strategic matters, along with local MPs and MEPs.

If districts were abolished the county council could reorganise itself into neighbourhood areas to deal with all matters in a locality.

This is not about making lots of people redundant, as the work delivering services will still need to be done.

It is about making savings in executive pay and the cost of endless meetings all discussing the same thing – reducing the number of councillors and having a clear decision-making structure which is open and accountable to the people.

There are very few opportunities arising from the comprehensive spending review.

A lot of people are going to suffer very badly. However, it does present an opportunity to improve the decision-making processes in our area.

Derrick Chester,

Worthing Road,

Wick