It’s Hallowe’en, and the ghoulish ‘ghost correspondent’ is haunting the pages of our much-loved Wellington Weekly Newspaper with yet another tirade against the proposed new Wessex devolved authority! Oh dear…
Only joking about the ‘spooky bit’, of course, but the fact that our anonymous Editorial writer has chosen to highlight this subject two weeks in succession, shows that feelings may be beginning to run high and, we mustn’t forget that there are local elections in 2027. Could there be a connection? Surely not!
And, in any case, I think our ‘ghost’ has fundamentally misunderstood what this is all about: rather than diluting and misappropriating our ‘local say’ in local affairs, as they would have us believe, this a move to bring central government - both decision-making and financial support - closer to home as it has already done in numerous other devolved authorities across the UK. It seems to me our ghost has simply got the wrong end of the stick.
In fact, as the Chair of Somerset Council, Bill Revans, pointed-out on Budget day, following devolution of significant powers from our Westminster government to the proposed new Wessex authority, we here in Somerset could be in line for as much as £460 m. which could significantly improve local infrastructure and boost economic growth amongst other things. And given that such a huge proportion - almost 70%! - of our Somerset Council revenue has statutorily to be spent on much-needed social care provision, it’s not hard to see that extra funding in other areas would be invaluable.
And so to recap, this proposed move to a Wessex mayoral authority is much more about bringing ‘big government’ closer and not devaluing local priorities and local authorities, so let’s look at this again with an eye on the positive and instead welcome the benefits it should bring.
After all, by the time you are reading this all things Hallowe-en will be over for another year, so let’s just put any ‘ghostly’ machinations well behind us where they belong?
JF Pocock
Wellington
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Wellington resident Jo Pocock responds to recent criticism of the proposed Wessex devolved authority, explaining why bringing powers - and up to £460m in funding - closer to home will boost Somerset
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