Keep your Hands Off Portsmouth!

Will Portsmouth end up worse off under a major shake-up of local government?

Labour has made it clear they are willing to impose a new layer of government on Portsmouth by 2026, called a Mayoral Combined Authority by Ministerial decree.

It seems that Portsmouth is NOT ALLOWED to say no!

You can read more about this important proposal in the Portsmouth News or by reading on below.

However, unless the Government can prove to me that Portsmouth will not be worse off nor lose its identity as a city, my message to them is clear:

“Keep your hands off Portsmouth!”

The new body could include Southampton, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

We don't yet know where the new Mayor would be based.  

It may well not be Portsmouth!

Whilst we have always seen the potential benefits of more funding and powers being passed down from Westminster to local areas, we have always favoured a Solent area option.

The Government has ruled this out.

But just like the cuts to Winter Fuel Payments, Labour's plans do not seem to have been fully thought through.

What's more, the proposed timescales are ridiculous. We only found out about this plan on December 16th.

An outline of Labour's national plan is in the Devolution White Paper.

An emergency meeting of Portsmouth's Cabinet will be held on Wednesday 8th January to decide what to do.  

Leaders of all the local opposition parties will be invited to take part and state their position.

We will let you know what that meeting decides.

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Separately, the Labour government is also proposing to force Portsmouth City Council to expand to cover at least 500,000 people.

This is because they are scrapping all the existing county, district and borough councils across England, without any consultation.

This would force Portsmouth into a shotgun marriage with places like Havant and Gosport.

Again without any kind of local vote!

I am really worried that a big chunk of the huge debts of the near bankrupt Hampshire County Council will just be dumped in Portsmouth's lap.

We could be forced to accept responsibility for things like social care, transport, schools and waste over this much larger area.

Portsmouth residents are once again being let down by a distant and out-of-touch Government.