Make ‘localism’ a reality
From Henry Smith
Sir: Alasdair Palmer’s piece (‘Local villains’, 25 February) regarding the unresponsiveness and intransigence of local authorities is, I am sure, wearily familiar to just about any reader. Like many others, his frustration and irritation is accurate and justified, but I believe his criticism of the idea of ‘new localism’ is not.
As a council leader my reflex reaction should possibly be to defend the status quo, but in all honesty I cannot. As a local representative I share the annoyance often experienced by the local citizen. Rather than accepting this situation as inevitable, though, I think it needs to be challenged.
True localism is about direct democracy, whereby the link between taxation and representation is restored and those elected by local communities are empowered to get on with delivering what residents tell them is a priority for their area across all local services.
Henry Smith
Leader of West Sussex County Council, Chichester, West Sussex
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