GOVERNMENT UNDERMINES SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES ACT

11.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 3rd Apr 2009

Falmouth and Camborne MP Julia Goldsworthy has expressed her anger at the Government's attempts to undermine new laws that would tell people how their taxes are being spent in Cornwall.

The Sustainable Communities Act is a piece of legislation that will give real people a real say. Almost one hundred authorities nationwide, included Cornwall Council, have so far opted in to work with their local communities to identify local priorities, and the Secretary of State will have a duty to assist them in delivering on these issues.

But a key part of the Sustainable Communities Act - the publication of local spending reports - has now been undermined by the government.

'Local Spending Reports' were originally intended to list all public spending across a council area - on education, health and by quangos, as well as by the council, and would have given local people the opportunity to see where all public money was being spent locally and, if necessary, demand a shift in priorities.

But now under the government's proposals only spending information by councils and NHS Primary Care Trusts will be published, and this is already in the public domain.

Julia Goldsworthy, who first presented the bill to parliament in 2006, has joined with both Labour and Conservative MPs in writing to Secretary of State for Communities Hazel Blears to express their anger at the government's behaviour.

Commenting, Julia Goldsworthy MP said:

"It is completely unacceptable that the government is attempting to undermine a central part of the Act. Instead of setting communities free, this is yet another display of the government's centralist tendencies.

"This piece of legislation has the opportunity to give communities a greater say over the decisions that impact on their lives. Instead of Whitehall deciding what happens in local communities in Cornwall, the people who actually live here should be able to decide what their priorities are.

"That is why I, and the other sponsors of the Act, have written to the Secretary of State to express our dismay at the government's actions; and to request a meeting to discuss our concerns."