"Words fail me for describing the mess the government have created with their election hokey-cokey, Billig said. As a result, devolution and LGR are off. We cannot consent to the new statutory instrument that is necessary to set up our mayoral county combined authority in the months before our elections. So that's it. The contract is broken. The Conservative group is resolved that we will not be assisting this government to deliver LGR."
"We were sold LGR as a mechanism for us to receive more money and powers locally. So far, that has not materialised and I am therefore not sure that we should be spending more of our taxpayers money on this."
Kay Mason Billig, Conservative leader of Norfolk county council, pulled Norfolk out of planned devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR). She said the council could not proceed with LGR and hold elections simultaneously after the government scrapped plans to postpone local elections for 30 councils following a legal challenge. Billig accused ministers of bullying by conditioning access to the government's devolution priority programme on the council agreeing not to request election postponement. Officials must now scramble to organize ballots for May, raising concerns that the U-turn could derail the largest council reorganization in 50 years. Other council leaders expressed doubts about continuing LGR.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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