Local Government Commission And The Government Law Officer

EDM number 1120 in 1993-94, proposed by Frank Cook on 26/04/1994.

That this House notes that the allegedly independent Local Government Commission recommended the abolition of Cleveland County Council and the sharing of its powers and responsibilities among the district authorities of Hartlepool, Langbaurgh, Middlesbrough and Stockton on Tees, that minutes of Langbaurgh Policy and Resources Sub-Committee for 8th March record that the districts 'had taken advice from the Treasury Solicitor, who recommended that the Districts serve an affidavit in support of both the Districts' submission and the Commission's recommendation', that the Sub-Committee exercising its plenary powers approved the adoption of the Government Law Officer's recommendation, that the tendering of advice to district councils in such circumstances by a Government law officer is clear evidence of how independent the Commission is not, that a truly independent review would require the parties to apply their own ample resources rather than permitting filching of unwarranted support from national government, that is now plain that the Commission finds its answers 'in the back of the book' and tailors its workings to suit and does this with national government collusion, that even adopting such manipulative tactics it makes a manifestly miserable mess of its machinations and that in view of this the Secretary of State should announce the abandonment of this discredited review, disband the equally discredited Commission and seek all-party consultations on the most credible means of agreeing a range of structures based on clearly defined criteria aimed towards effective efficient and reliable services suited to the particular community under assessment.

This motion has been signed by a total of 11 MPs.