By Isle of Wight Observer
It has been confirmed that the Isle of Wight is formally part of the priority programme for devolution for the Solent area.
Devolution is a good thing. It finally brings some important decision making away from Westminster and puts it in the heart of our locality, where we can make better choices that benefit Islanders. It brings many powers over transport, housing, education and more and also comes with substantial additional money.
For some, the elephant in the room is a mayor. Government clearly prefers a mayoral model of operation. However, it must be remembered that devolution is simply a strategic partnership of local authorities. It does not change the way individual authorities are structured. What it does is to create a ‘combined authority’, which is essentially a meeting of the leaders of the member authorities, plus a mayor, who together make decisions about the investment of strategic additional funding. The Isle of Wight council carries on and will continue to deliver the services it must deliver.
A mayor cannot override the leaders, and will need the approval of those leaders before schemes and investments are agreed. One person, one vote. No one authority will trump another. The mayor will not trump the leaders.
The model safeguards our existing governance.
Local Government re-organisation is different and separate to all of this. A different processes, and a different timeframe, with different outcomes being sought.
The worry from some Islanders is that the Isle of Wight Council will be amalgamated with another authority to form a larger Unitary authority. I do not believe this will happen.
Firstly, the Isle of Wight is already a Unitary authority. It has no need to change as such. In addition, and very practically, it cannot join with other authorities because of the Solent in between. Government know this. Our neighbouring authorities know this too, and have written to the Minister to tell him so. Further, in meetings I have had with the Minister, he has openly and clearly acknowledged this fact.
The White Paper helpfully states there will be exceptions to the preferred size of a Unitary authority. Last Wednesday, the Deputy Prime Minister said: “We recognise that certain areas may have different needs. We will work with local areas to look at what their needs are then adapt. This is not set in stone….”
Put simply, the Island is an obvious exception. It has different needs and in this way will not change, but with devolution the change to our economy and infrastructure will be significant.