The government has announced that Cornwall county council's bid for a unitary authority as a means of improving local services has been successful. We are in a 12-week consultation period. However, don't expect to be consulted. Unless you were one of the 1,000 out of the 500,000-plus residents of Cornwall you would not have been consulted before the bid was put in. The Liberal Democrat-controlled council will again deny you your say.
The stakeholders being consulted now range from the Arts Council to Youth Justice Board, not you the people of Cornwall who will have to pick up the bill for this major structural change. There have been figures quoted to cover this, although I gather two departments were forgotten in the calculations, but when did you ever hear of anything coming in on budget. Look at the 2012 Olympics.
At a meeting called for April 4 by North Cornwall district council - who did not support the bid for unitary authority - and attended by over 150 people from all walks of life and all parts of Cornwall, again and again the request for a "referendum" was emphatically put.
In a press release on April 3, Caroline Righton, prospective parliamentary candidate for St Austell and Newquay, added her support to that of the other Cornwall Conservatives in calling for the Liberal Democrat party in Cornwall to back the Conservative initiative in calling for a referendum on May 3. The quote that went with this call, and repeated from the floor at the meeting of April 4, called for the Liberal Democrats to adhere to their own policy as outlined at their party conference last year and in their policy paper "Your Community, Your Choice - Policies for Local Government in England." It clearly states: "Any move from two tier to single tier must be preceded by a local referendum."
Even if the call for a referendum fails you will still have a chance to express your views on May 3.
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