Parish pump power

You'd have thought Stephen Byers (he of railtrack and Jo Moore) would want to keep his head down. Not a bit of it! Now he's after your parish council. Byers is responsible for local government and he told the Countryside Agency (hardly their job, surely) to draw up a little list of all the parish councils in the land and grade them as sleeping, barely active, active and vibrant. Not small, medium and large. Not effective, very effective and examples to us all. Nor even OK, popular and very popular. No, Tony Blair's Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions wanted something really offensive to the one third of our parish councillors (in the two bottom categories) who do all that is expected of them by their communities without wishing to build empires.

So, Stephen's wooden spoons go to Alvediston, Berwick St.Leonard, Chicklade, Clarendon Park and Stratford Tony.

From the work they push my way, I beg to differ! And it beats me why the Countryside Agency should have it in for the 'Barely Active' parishes of Allington, Britford, Compton Chamberlain, Donhead St.Mary, Durnford, Fonthill Bishop, Grimstead, Quidhampton, South Newton, Stapleford, Tollard Royal, West Tisbury and Wilsford-cum-Lake.

All the other parish councils are apparently 'Active' except Chilmark which has been left out altogether and the gold-medal 'Vibrant' parishes of Berwick St.John, Great Wishford, Odstock, Swallowcliffe, Tilshead, West Dean, Whiteparish and Winterslow.

So, what's going on? Last November the Government put out a consultation paper suggesting that new 'Quality' parish councils wanting more funding would have to meet new targets, forcing them to conform to a rigid blueprint. This is the wrong approach. Parish councils should only be penalised if they fail - not disqualified before they start.

Next, Byers suggested in the December Local Government White Paper that the infamous 'Best Value' bureaucracy should be extended to some Parish Councils (the 'Vibrant' ones?) - which would see their audit fees rocket. What nonsense.

To add insult to injury' the Government's mandatory Model Code of Conduct for parish councils will introduce a register of members' interests (in Alvediston?) to ensure your job, business, house ownership, gifts or hospitality or that of your family won't influence your decisions. Whoever drafted this hasn't got a clue what it is like to live in a tight-knit village community. But who's surprised with Byers in charge (educated at Liverpool Polytechnic, represents Tyneside North)?

Then there's the Planning Green Paper. This will allow building development against the wishes of District as well as Parish Councils. Local communities will be stripped of their involvement in local planning decisions. The role of County Councils in creating Structure Plans will be abolished (so not long before County Councils disappear). Council planning officials, not your elected Councillors) will decide 90% of planning applications. A new Government planning quango will regulate local Councils. New regional planning strategies cooked up in Bristol (where?) will override all local councils.

This is all part of an agenda for regional government that will downgrade our national parliament, take away local decision-making and give it to a Bristol-based Regional Assembly. That fits in much more easily with how the rest of Europe is run. And, whether they realised it or not, that's what the majority of the British people voted for in 1997 and 2001. It's a funny old world!

ROBERT KEY MP