POLITICIANS want you to believe ‘devolution’ is delivering a new dawn for local democracy, with government handing down powers to local people.
The West Midlands mayor and combined authority have control of some funding pots for major economic projects and transport. The ‘Midlands Engine’ with you at the wheel, they say.
Yet, six years after the heavily centralising so-called Localism Act, Coventry council forecasts potentially £19million more cuts in services after £107million government funding cuts already.
Local services – libraries, children’s centres, youth clubs, transport to schools for disabled youngsters – are disappearing nationally.
And you will be paying more for less – with another 4.9 per cent Council Tax rise.
