Cheshire (Structural Changes) Order 2008

My Lords, not for the first time, Members of your Lordships' House, including myself, have received a lot of letters and telephone calls from individuals and organisations who feel that their voice has not been heard and that they have not been given the opportunity to express their views. I am delighted to have the opportunity to give voice to some of those views, as have other noble Lords. Those individuals and organisations believe that this is a carve-up which has been steamrollered through another place; which the Government intend to steamroller through to implementation; and would steamroller it through your Lordships’ House had they not found such a lot of opposition tonight. I agree with them. They also believe that the Government’s refusal to reveal the financial basis of the decision is also a cover-up, with which I also agree. I oppose the order and I support the amendments for four reasons. First, some of the assumptions are flawed. I shall give three from a letter to the chief executive of Cheshire County Council, which states: "““Cheshire would be too big for a unitary county council. There was a natural line dividing east from west … cities provided the best form of local government””," for Cheshire. Those assumptions are completely flawed. First, there are 12 counties and unitaries that are bigger than Cheshire on any criteria that one might like to look at. Are they to be split as well? Secondly, on the natural dividing line, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chester has made it clear that there is no such natural dividing line. As a long-time resident of Cheshire, I very much agree with that. Thirdly, the idea that the cities of Liverpool and Manchester provide the focus for local government for rural Cheshire is completely ludicrous. The needs of a shire county are very different from those of a city. My second reason is that I believe that there is the tiniest amount of public support and organisational support for this proposal. It is delusional of the Government to think that there is ““sufficient support””. There is not. I shall not go through all the figures quoted by the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, but they speak for themselves. It is nonsense to say that we want to consult local people and then not ask them properly, and certainly not listen to them. In another place the Minister listed seven organisations which support the proposals we are debating tonight, but the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, and I have a list of 19 organisations that are against it. My third reason is one that noble Lords would expect from me. I am very concerned about schools and children’s services. Many noble Lords will have received letters from every single head of organisation in Cheshire and every single one expressed severe concerns. I have also heard from the Cheshire branch of the NUT. I shall give just two reasons out of the many cited. At present, we have a director of children’s services who has overall responsibility for the implementation of the very ambitious Every Child Matters agenda. Now it is proposed that we have one director of children’s and adult’s services. That is simply not good enough; the agenda is too big and the magnitude of the task too great for one person, and I fear that children’s services will suffer. The second reason given is school budgets. This Government sensibly announce school budgets three years ahead so that schools have stability and can plan properly. Because we have no continuing authorities under these proposals, schools will not be able to do that. Finally, the timescale is completely mad. We have here an unprecedented reorganisation, the third for Cheshire in 15 years. I do wish governments would leave Cheshire alone to get on with it. Cheshire provides a very high quality education, and always has. I used to be a member of a school governing body in Cheshire, so I know that from my personal experience. To suggest that you can go through a change such as this one, a change that is totally unprecedented, in the same timescale as some of the other reorganisations that have been proposed is quite barmy.