I have written before about the controversial plan for an energy-from-waste plant at Kings Lynn. A recent development suggests we have even more to fear from the Local Government Act of 2000 than we thought.
Opponents of the Kings Lynn project took Norfolk County Council to court because the decision to go ahead with this plan was a] taken only by the ten member cabinet and b] it even appears to have been decided by the ruling Tory group before that meeting.
But they lost. And contained within the reports this week is a reference to the high court's adjudication on the Local Government Act 2000 which seems to spell the end of true democracy and calls into question the point and cost of having elected councillors at all.
The high court ruled, against campaigners, that it was 'proper procedure' under the act for the ten members of Norfolk County Council's cabinet to decide to proceed with the Cory Wheelaborator project at Kings Lynn for an Energy From Waste plant. This was despite the fact that the issue had not been debated or voted upon by the full council. In other words, the vast majority of Norfolk residents and electors had no say of any sort in the decision even through their elected representatives.I went to read this piece of legislation, which brought in both elected mayors like Boris Johnson and cabinet council control as in Norfolk. I started to read it but to be frank life is too short, especially at my end of the chronoscape. But I did read much of the relevant sections and I would have to say the high court is probably right (although I would love to see it tested further up the legal food chain).
So that's it really.
By this act we can have an elected group of members forming merely a small part of the whole (currently not less than 10) elected membership of the council and they can make executive decisions running into squillions of pounds. It would seem therefore that we council tax payers are footing the bill, at about £8-12,000 per councillor for up to 50 members, who are completely pointless. Not to mention the cost of their meetings and support by officers. Maybe Tony Blair's sovietisation of local councils in 2000 should have gone the whole hog and dispensed with democracy entirely.
One small point however. If, as many of us fear, this project turns out to be ill-judged because recycling progress reduces the amount of 'waste to burn' below the contracted level and the commercial sector decides The Willows price is too high and Norfolk County Council has to start paying penalty money to Cory Wheelaborator maybe it will also only be the ten wise members who end up getting the blame. Hate to be them if they end up being surcharged.
