On January 23 there is a special meeting of Cornwall county council to consider a submission to the government requesting that the district councils are disbanded in Cornwall to be replaced by a white elephant at County Hall in Truro. The aspiration is to save money by centralisation.

Experience has shown that such hasty public sector reorganisations take longer, cost more and deliver less, especially on the back of a hostile takeover. Similar reorganisation in the 1970s contributed to the hyper-inflation later that decade.

The cost argument is always a good reason for examining the way we work but change costs money and moving the goalposts is just a cop-out from addressing costs. The government are losing the argument with the public and so it has set the shire counties against the districts as a smokescreen.

Cornwall has a failing county council, partly due to lack of resources, but this is no excuse to swallow the government's bait. We need to cut out wasteful gimmicks such as newspapers, spin doctors and self promotion by executive members. We must make the most of what we have got. Overall costs are still rising at County Hall and they must be addressed. This reorganisation is another unrequired gimmick.

James Currie, Conservative group leader, Cornwall county council