Mastodawn

@vfrmedia Ah, yes, the council.

When we rewrote our council's constitution I thought I'd spotted a bug - that responsibility for licensing zoos was with the wrong portfolio or directorate or something.

"Tell you what," said the lawyer who'd written the draft, "how's about we leave the wording as is, and worry about it next time the council gets an application for a zoo licence?"

A very practical lawyer taking a perfectly reasonable risk-based approach. The council has never had an application to license a zoo. I don't recall any mention of exotic pets either.

@vfrmedia @TimWardCam

There are a couple of zoos in South Cambs, but I guess if the Cambridge and South Cambs unitary authority proposal (boo hiss) goes ahead there'll be a whole new constitution anyway.

@only_ohm @vfrmedia Why do you object to the Greater Cambridge unitary? Which of the other options do you prefer?

I prefer the status quo (well, perhaps minus the Mayor and Combined Authority).

1/3

Dan Hatton

And I object because

- "district councillor" and "county councillor" are each plenty big enough jobs for one person; expecting the same person to do both guarantees that neither will be done well
- centralizing (albeit only slightly) powers that the existing district and city council have amply demonstrated that they can exercise effectively is a clear (albeit slight) violation of the principle of subsidiarity

2/3

@only_ohm @vfrmedia Some of the powers have been operated jointly for some time now. Certainly when I was the planning portfolio holder it was essential to work with South Cambs, with so many major planning applications crossing the boundary.

- Combining parished and unparished areas under the same principal local authority creates a massive headache of how to achieve equity in taxation and service spending.

3/3

@only_ohm @vfrmedia Ah yes, that one will probably count as "interesting times". I expect there are models to follow, but I have no idea whether there are any good ones.

Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole is trying to introduce parishes in its hitherto-unparished areas, which I guess would help, but is still a lot more hassle than just _not getting into the situation in the first place_.

@only_ohm @vfrmedia So if central government's primary objective is to REDUCE the number of pesky little councils it sounds like they're losing there!

Dan Hatton 23h ago

Ministers' primary objective, as usual, is to centralize as much power as possible in their own person. But if the parishing thing works out, they'll be losing on that score too, since parish councils aren't covered by the legislation enabling ratecapping and authorizing the Secretary of State to order local authorities to privatise their landholdings.

Dan Hatton 23h ago