I SHOULD be glad if, through your pages, you will allow me to share with readers what is happening over their heads and will result in large changes while they go about their daily lives.

As an elected councillor last week I attended a meeting of a Cross County Engagement Networking Event hosted by the chief executive of Tewkesbury Borough Council.

We heard that the county council, the districts and boroughs, the Police & Crime Commissioners office and the Clinical Commissioning Group for Gloucestershire have combined in a bid to central government.

They want some powers and resources transferred locally to allocate and spend. They call it ‘devolution’.

They expect to hear in January and are optimistic.

There is a team of highly committed officers who are pushing this forward.

Sounds good? Wrong.

In order to win, the joint agencies have to be willing to ‘sell their souls’ to central government, which is keen to privatise services such as the NHS; to force through cuts of the kind that has already seen youth clubs and libraries close; and which has undermined the ability of authorities to fund support and care for vulnerable people; to make redundancies and then invite charities and volunteers to pick up local provision.

All this without bothering to consult you.

Moreover, Gloucestershire would form another tier of local government, a so-called “combined authority” to control and allocate any funding from central government.

It seems that some housing and other functions would be lost to local democratic control.

Nor will this combined authority be directly subject to control by local electors although business interests will have representation.

It can be questioned whether it will merely give central government even more control over local decisions.

Now, anything which improves local services and control is to be welcomed.

And the officers who are working hard for this very much want us to benefit.

But in doing so they are succumbing to the regrettable ideology that is pushing this onto us.

Time to say a clear ‘no’, I suggest.

Cllr Norman Kay

Green Party member

Nailsworth