The political posturing and propaganda in the wake of this week's Somerset County Council full council meeting seems intent on continuing, perhaps as a deliberate distraction from the more important immediate challenges we all face?
On 8th October the Secretary of State issued an invitation to all Councils in Somerset to submit a business case regarding Local Government reform, with a final submission date of December 9th.
The following week the Secretary of State advised that if any authorities being considered for Unitarisation asked for the 2021 election to be deferred it would look upon it positively.
The timetable given for the process is Feb/March 2021 Consultation, June/July Decision. This means that should next year's planned election take place the consultation period would fall in the middle of the purdah election period.
Along with the two other Counties involved, North Yorkshire (Conservative) and Cumbria (Lib Dem in Coalition with Labour) SCC have decided that for this reason a deferral would be requested and after a lengthy debate, was agreed by a significant majority in a named vote.
This deferral is already precedented in a number of areas including most recently Buckinghamshire.
The questions I pose to those opposed to such a measure are:-
1. How can you justify spending £1m on an election which will be for only one year?
2. How can you justify planning for an election which has a planned consultation during the course of it on the future of that authority?
3. If you believe that there is a democratic deficit then why would you not resign and fight a by election on May 6th 2021?
4. If you believe it is a year of unjustified extra allowances why not simply refuse to draw your allowance and ask for it to be spent on services?
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