Conservative County Council plan to abolish Hinckley and Bosworth Borough condemned by Lib Dems

Plans to abolish Hinckley and Bosworth Borough have been condemned by a Hinckley County Councillor.

The Conservative leader of Leicestershire County Council, Nick Rushton, has launched a proposal to abolish all the Boroughs and Districts in Leicestershire and create one Leicestershire wide authority.

Hinckley Lib Dem County Councillor Michael Mullaney said "This proposal to abolish Hinckley and Bosworth Borough is totally wrong.

"It would mean decisions on planning applications in Hinckley which are currently taken in Hinckley being taken instead by a Planning Committee in Glenfield the majority of whose councillors would be from outside the Hinckley and Bosworth area. We know from experience how outside bodies such as government Inspectors have often imposed developments on our area, after those developments were stopped at Hinckley and Bosworth.

"It would mean decision making in a host of other areas being moved from local people in Hinckley and handed over to a county wide authority. It would concentrate too much power over our area in the hands of a few people who would head the Leicestershire authority.

"It would also mean people in Hinckley & Bosworth losing out financially compared to other areas. The leader of the County Council states the level of council tax in the new authority would be set at the level of the lowest taxed local council. As Hinckley & Bosworth has the lowest council tax of any borough people in Hinckley and Bosworth would not get a tax cut under these plans, whilst everyone else in the county would. This is not a fair deal for taxpayers in Hinckley & Bosworth.

"I hope the Conservative leaders at County Hall will drop their plans to abolish Hinckley and Bosworth and the other boroughs. If they do press on with their plans though they need to have a full programme of consultation with the people of Hinckley and Bosworth.

"Last Wednesday we had a meeting of the full County Council. The County Council leader made no mention of the plans to abolish Hinckley and Bosworth and other boroughs at that meeting. Yet on Friday he announced the plan. Why did he not allow discussion at the meeting two days earlier? Particularly as we now know the plans had been produced weeks ago. This is an attack on democracy at the County Council. It is outrageous that the next scheduled meeting of the County Council is not till September. This issue needs to be discussed before then.

"Mr Rushton should call an emergency meeting of the County Council ASAP to allow this subject to be properly debated.