Martin Vickers
Main Page: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)(11 years, 11 months ago)
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Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)
Thank you, Mr Crausby. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (John Stevenson) on securing the debate.
I served as a councillor for 26 years, with 14 of those on a district authority, which was then transformed into a unitary authority. I entirely concur with previous comments that unitary authorities are the way forward, and I would like to see the Government make more positive moves in the right direction. I also entirely agree that it is desirable for those authorities to be led by an elected mayor. Mayoral positions attract those who have not previously been drawn into local politics. That is good, because it enlarges the pool of talent that is available, and it provides necessary links between business and politics. In the short time available, I want to add one or two points to what my hon. Friend has said.
In Lord Heseltine’s excellent report, he talks considerably about a sense of place and local identities. I know that the Government, like the previous Administration, are drawn to city regions and the boost to a local economy that they can give, and they are even, I believe, considering the possibility of elected mayors for those regions. Although I support that, the city region itself must have a sense of place. My area of Humberside most certainly does not. I, and many others, spent 20 years of our political lives fighting the previously imposed county of Humberside. There must be a clear sense of identity.
We can move on from the lost mayoral referendums of last year. I hope that areas such as my own in north-east Lincolnshire can steal a march on the cities that rejected mayors by grasping the nettle, moving forward and going for an elected mayor themselves. That is why I very much support my hon. Friend’s comments that we must bypass local councils and local councillors, who are a blockade to that; for various reasons, they oppose it. Therefore, I would very much support moves to reduce the threshold and give local activists and local people opportunities to move forward in that direction.