Secretary Of State For Environment And Local Government In Cleveland

EDM number 292 in 1994-95, proposed by Frank Cook on 15/12/1994.

That this House notes that, despite assurances given by Ministers on three separate occasions that individual representations made to the Secretary of State for the Environment on the proposals for local government reorganisation in Cleveland, once an Implementation Order was laid, would be made available for inspection on request, the Secretary of State has reneged by refusing access to representations from individual members of the public and attempting to delay access to representations made by public bodies; notes, too, that similar undertakings were given to deposit in the Library a 'summary' of representations made and yet the five-paragraph document produced four days late gives no details whatsoever on the number of representations received or the balance of opinions expressed; notes further that it was only in a letter dated 14th December to the honourable Member for Stockton North that the Secretary of State eventually conceded that the majority of representations received by him were opposed to the proposals from the Local Government Commission; notes also the disparity between the total of 208 representations indicated in that letter and the total of more than 300 claimed by the Local Government Minister in his reply to the honourable Member for Langbaurgh on 20th April; notes finally that the Secretary of State, having denied the people of Cleveland the opportunity to express their views through a local referendum, now denies honourable and Right honourable Members access to representations and frustrates their legitimate efforts to obtain pertinent and accurate information; and condemns this behaviour as a clear demonstration of contempt for honourable and Right honourable Members of this House and the rights and views of local people.

This motion has been signed by a total of 9 MPs.