On Wednesday 21st October I moved an amendment to the Cities and Local Government Bill at the Bill’s committee stage. You can read my contributions to this stage of the Bill here.
This Bill makes provision for the election of mayors for areas and changes to local government structure to devolve new powers to local government from Central Government. In other areas of the country responsibility and funding for important issues like job creation, skills, housing, transport and even health have been proposed for devolution from Whitehall.
Whilst I welcome moves to redistribute power from Whitehall and allow for more decisions to be made by local government to meet local needs, I do have some concerns about the proposals to create a new level of Local Government with the creation of a Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Mayor. However, I moved an amendment to this Bill in order to give local people more of a say and greater consultation on what the future of representation in Derbyshire will look like.
As proposals for the devolution of power from Whitehall to local Government progress, I want to make sure these proposals reflect the desires of my constituents and I would welcome your thoughts.