Things are not well on the local political front.

The current Town Council (Liberal Democrat controlled) reduced the number of committees and increased membership numbers when they came into office during 1999. Three years later, they have noticed it’s difficult to get a quorum to meetings and therefore at least one committee has reduced the member numbers (means that quorum is less!) in an effort to correct matters.

The Borough Council (Conservative controlled) is having difficulties even getting things done under the new undemocratic system as the opposition keeps on ‘calling’ decisions in so they have to be discussed twice or even more times on occasions.

The County Council (Conservative controlled) is having more functions devolved down without any funding to carry them out.

The regional Council (dunno)  is looking to justify it’s existence and do not be surprised if local development control is moved to the region. By the way, the regional council is based in Cambridge, so if you wish to object to a planning application you had better find out where the M11 is or allow a couple of days by public transport.

The National Council (aka Labour controlled government) is doing it’s best to devolve decision making down to local level so it can pass the buck when it chooses or step in if the ‘party line’ is not followed, as Mr Livingstone found out. This does have the advantage of costing less for President Blair (remember funding doesn’t follow responsibility completely).

The point of all this, is that local democracy is very much under threat unless we start to sit up and take notice.

Honest, you can make a difference by getting involved, writing to the local press, joining one of the local groups such as CARAB or the BCA. You could even join one of the local political parties and stir them into action. Most are looking for ‘activists’ and you could influence local decisions.

Remember the Apathy Party grew because the likes of me and you let it. Get involved and you can make things better in spite of the system.