Posted at 28th April 2008 08:15Politics, Politics.
The Broads Authority seemed completely rattled by South Norfolk’s submission to the Boundary Committee. Kerry Turner’s written reply to South Norfolk leader John Fuller wasn’t a bad example of the sort of weak performance and panicky response that observers have come to expect when he’s under pressure.
Including the Broads Authority’s Local Authority functions within the Boundary Committee’s review of local governance seems entirely sensible. When considering formation of large unitary authorities providing public services for populations around 350,000 people; one remaining body trying to provide similar services for only 2,500 people, smack in the middle of the area under consideration bears no logic at all. In this context, reduction of the Broads Authority from a ‘member of the national park family’ to a Harbour Conservancy would fit the Bill nicely. Thanks to its responsibilities as a Harbour Authority the Broads can never be covered by the National Parks Act and therefore never become a ‘proper’ National Park. That’s not my opinion – it comes fresh from the pen of Jonathan Shaw the Defra minister. Much better to concentrate the minds of the Authority’s management on core functions. The increase in staff levels from under thirty, twenty years ago to 160 today bears further witness to the escalating level of management diversions. The Broads Authority has its own, special Act to cover its diverse functions and primary legislation is required to change this – happily the Broads Authority currently has a Private Bill in the House that could easily provide the vehicle.
Further reactions to just a few lines on page six of the South Norfolk submission to the Boundary Committee were even more surprising. Nowhere did this document suggest abolition of the Broads Authority; yet this was the tack fed to the local press. The Eastern Daily Press the following Saturday carried a tasteless, personal attack on John Fuller. The source of the information used can only have been a River Cruiser owner working for the BA. To date, second tier and below BA management have been largely spared the politics but the front may have to widen. Somewhere underneath all of this may well lie a new, Defra appointed member of the Broads Authority, unable to contain the disappointments he suffered at John Fuller’s hands in South Norfolk. In such circumstances, it’s as well to remember that the S. Norfolk submission was an all party document.
It also looks very much as if Colegate has been extraordinarily cynical about the agreement the Authority reached with North Norfolk MP, Norman Lamb. He doesn’t like QUANGOs as a point of political principle and wishes to see at least a measure of democracy within the Broads Authority. Mr Lamb agreed to drop his House of Commons motion blocking the Broads Authority’s Private Bill if their members were given a chance to debate this. A couple of members would have satisfied him. He was only looking for a couple of elected members. This was agreed after a meeting on 29th February at the UEA Sports Park and the debate fixed for the BA meeting in May; although there was plenty of time to have included it within March Authority meeting. Guess what. A parliamentary debate a couple days before the May BA meeting. Blocking Orders are overruled by a Parliamentary debate and now the BA won’t have to debate democracy at all. Whilst the Broads Authority debate would have borne a startling resemblance to turkeys voting for Christmas, this timing bears all the hallmarks of precisely the sort of dealing that has helped generate the current level of public mistrust this QUANGO enjoys.
Maybe I’ll cover the Defra nominations to the Broads Authority in the next blogging. Hey ho.
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