Sunday, April 05, 2015

Happy 50th Birthday London Boroughs - time to change?


This is an interesting video commissioned by modern day London Councils to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the current London Borough arrangements. Before 1965 Newham had separate West Ham and East Ham Councils.

There has been massive changes in London during the past 50 years, so it is worth exploring whether or not there should be another review.

Maybe we need fewer than 33 boroughs in London and we should merge or perhaps existing structures are too big and we should decentralise? Or should we "pick and mix" and decide local government structures according to what makes sense. Some functions merged and others decentralised?

We should also look at tackling the democratic deficit in local government and the poor turnout in elections and participation.

I will be posting further on this (after May 7th).


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