Writing about the centralisation of local government in Britain today on the ConservativeHome website (follow link), Nick Cuff, a Wandsworth councillor, has some good points to make including an interesting table that shows just how out of step we are compared to the rest of Europe in terms of how big our councils are and therefore remote from their electors.
I am not sure that I would make councils any smaller but you could argue that they are big enough to look after themselves!
I repeat his figures – he does not say where they came from.
Country |
Average population per council |
Number of electors per councillor |
France |
1,580 |
116 |
Germany |
4,925 |
250 |
Italy |
7,130 |
397 |
Norway |
9,000 |
515 |
Spain |
4,930 |
597 |
Sweden |
30,040 |
667 |
Belgium |
16,960 |
783 |
Denmark |
18,760 |
1,084 |
Portugal |
32,300 |
1,125 |
UK |
118,400 |
2,605 |
One reply on “Remote councils”
The other way to look at it is that there are fewer politicians/bureaucrats here, so we are better off, but of course there is a balance to be struck…
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