Wiltshire (Structural Change) Order 2008

My Lords, I have great sympathy with what the noble Lord, Lord Geddes, said. I declare an interest as a Northumberland county councillor and a Berwick borough councillor, although I shall not be standing for the new unitary authority. I recognise the problems. I was not able to be here last week when all these orders were debated, but I feel that the Government have been less than honest with people about the role of democracy. They have talked a lot about devolution and listening to people. However, I heard what the noble Lord, Lord Geddes, said in relation to Wiltshire. I have also heard about Cheshire and I know about Northumberland. I think that this is a very sorry way to carry on. My noble friend is absolutely right: we are going to have elections in Northumberland in eight weeks, as will others. The people of Northumberland, despite not liking much of what was going on, recognised that we could not stop it, so we are doing our best to make sure that it will work. In all the debates that we have had, this has been very unsatisfactory and undemocratic. It was even worse in Northumberland; we had a referendum in which people said what they would like but the Government responded, ““Oh, that does not matter; the chief constable and others want this to happen””. The Government have moved forward paying scant regard to democracy. This will be played out, in some cases, in the reorganisations. In Northumberland, it is the officers who are pushing this forward until the new council is elected. It is time that the Government thought carefully about how our democracy works. They have played fast and loose with it and they are now setting up all sorts of bodies that have no democratic accountability and are not going to be any better.