Liverpool City Region 'consultation' - St Helens Green Party response
7 September 2013
St Helens Green Party has submitted its response to the consultation on proposals for a 'Combined Authority' for the so-called Liverpool City Region. According to the St Helens Star, there were just 168 responses from the Merseyside and Halton areas - from an adult population of over one million.
Whilst the party supports the principle of councils co-operating on regional, strategic matters, especially in the face of the government's austerity programme which has hit the region particularly hard, it rejects the Liverpool City Region model on the following grounds.
- We have our doubts that the creation of a Combined Authority will really unlock new streams of government funding – and even if that were to materialise we have little faith in the ability of those pushing for such an authority to deliver.
- Those who have for decades overseen the region’s decline should not be in charge of the solution.
- The current crop of politicians struggle to make things work/deliver on a smaller scale – handing them greater, more far-reaching responsibilities could be disastrous.
- There is a worrying lack of hard evidence to support the claims being made in the consultation document; the lack of clarity glaring.
- There is no hard evidence that this CA structure would make a blind bit of difference – and plenty of historical evidence to suggest it will fail.
- We oppose the creation of a Combined Authority conceived by the Conservatives, delivered by Labour and supported by hardly anybody.
- Citizens of St Helens, without being properly consulted or given a choice in a referendum, are being expected to place their trust and faith in people, organisations and structures who have let them down time and again over many years.
- Where is the democracy, transparency and accountability?
- As things stand, the proposals amount to little more than a rubber stamping exercise dreamt up by Liverpool Labour and the proxy politicians it imposes on St Helens and other localities.
- This is little more than Labour Party power politics, creating more greasy poles for slippery career politicians – at our expense.
- This will be another unnecessary bureaucracy, funded by local taxpayers who have to pay but don’t get a say.
- It's another step down the road to St Helens being annexed by Liverpool and its Labour Party. Who is going to stand up for St Helens?
- St Helens was forced into Merseyside against its will; now history is repeating itself. Why reinvent a broken wheel?
- If politicians want to revive the failed Merseyside County Council by the backdoor, the St Helens public should be given a choice in a referendum.
- The historical evidence is overwhelming. We should not place our faith in tired old clichés and economic models that have served us so badly in the recent past – why strengthen them?
- We need a stronger North West to ‘compete’ with the South-east, not a weaker one divided by futile internal rivalries. We recognise that a period of catch-up growth is needed now – but this won’t be achieved by competing artificially with our neighbours.
- The lesson from the 1980s is that handing more power over to Liverpool makes things far worse, not better.
- Power should be closer to the people of St Helens – not further away.
- “No stone unturned in pursuit of growth”? What kind of growth? We disagree fundamentally with the focus on promoting perpetual economic growth. There’s an obvious paradox of aiming for perpetual growth within a finite planet with finite resources. Sooner rather than later there needs to be a transition to the aim of a ‘steady state’ economy.
- Traditional models of ‘regeneration’ and ‘economic growth’ being espoused are outdated and irrelevant. We need sustainable development, shared equally across our communities to reduce inequality.
- Little or nothing is said about economic resilience. Where are the ambitions to shorten supply chains, to produce and provide locally, and develop strong local economies?
- We need more than just vague promises of quick fix solutions to perennial problems.
- If the ‘Supervisory Board’ model is good enough for Birmingham, why isn’t it good enough for Liverpool?
- Existing local authority governance arrangements are far from satisfactory. Let’s revive local democracy in St Helens first.
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