March 24th
The Editor,
Saffron Walden Reporter
Dear Sir,
With the Uttlesford elections approaching it is time to dispel the myth that locally elected Councillors who stand in the name of national Parties become puppets of their Westminster masters.
Throughout the U.K. local Councils have considerable autonomy to determine their priorities and spending. All local Councillors of all Parties are elected to represent their local residents. And all local Councils of whatever political persuasion will draw up their own policies to meet local requirements. In this respect it makes no difference whether you are Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat or some Independent Party. As such no Party can claim they are more locally focused than any other.
However and at the same time all local Councils are subject to certain Central Government requirements from which there is no escape. It may relate to the number of houses that must be built or the level of taxation or laws impacting other aspects of local Government. It doesn’t matter who is in power in Westminster or the political party in power locally as the central government will prevails.
So actually when R4U claim it makes sense locally to vote for a local Party this claim doesn’t really make any sense at all. Moreover it is totally misleading to infer that a local Party is immune from central Government requirements. In operational terms all local political parties choose local residents as candidates who should be dedicated to serving their local community. In this respect there is no difference between them.
Yours faithfully,
Anthony Russell
Chairman,
Saffron Walden Constituency Conservative Association.
