Worcester News: Why can Whitehall overrule council?

Why can Whitehall overrule council?

SIR – In consideration of the proposals for the destruction of the environs of Bevere Green by industrial development.

Could I please be enlightened through your pages by a responsible member of Worcestershire County Council as to how in a liberal democracy an unelected and unwanted quango – the West Midlands Regional Assembly – can impose diktat from a New Labour politician in Whitehall so as to influence and indeed drastically alter the county structure plan as well as the democratically approved and tested policy and procedures of the involved planning authorities.

My concern is directed through knowledge of various other regional schemes dictated by the same Whitehall source that have patently failed and have ruined other beautiful areas together with considerable loss to the Department of Trade and Industry and ultimately the taxpayer.

Laurie Ward, Bevere, Worcester

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WMRA sign climate change pact

West Midlands Regional Assembly has signed the Nottingham Declaration, an environmental pact that means all the local authorities in the West Midlands euroregion are now obliged to put the environment at the top of their agenda.

What’s that you say?  What do our elected representatives think about it?  Doesn’t matter, the unelected Regional Assembly is in charge of the implementing the EU’s environmental policies.