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AS YOU throw your money this month into the dustbin they call council tax, it's worth reflecting on the pathetic case of the Wellesbourne Campus in High Wycombe.

The distressing central Government decision two weeks ago to allow 238 houses on this site is yet more proof of the utter impotence and pointlessness of local government.

For once, councillors got it right by turning down an application in 2006 to build this intrusive estate in Kingshill Road. The people you and I had elected to serve had made a decision based on local knowledge. Whatever we may think of them, they are accountable at the ballot box to us and therefore their views surely had to be worth something.

No such luck. The developer appealed, it went to a public inquiry and central government overturned the democratically-made local decision.

Forget for a moment, if you can, that 238 new homes will put tremendous and unfair strain on our schools and roads. Forget for a moment if you can, that creeping back garden development is slowly but surely destroying our lovely county.

The issue that enrages me more than anything else is that we have three tiers of local government which we pay through the nose for - and all count for nothing in the issues that matter.

The one exception to this rule was the way Wycombe District Council fought to get Eden built - but that is one silver lining in a series of very dark clouds.

Let's face it, local government is past its sell-by date. Whether we like it or not, it is not allowed to function properly - and yet we pay ridiculous amounts for this massive beast.

If we scrapped it all tomorrow, the only difference we'd see is a huge saving in taxes and a few bored looking ex-councillors wandering the streets.

I do believe in democracy, but not in wasteful, ineffective systems that pay just lip service to the ideal.

1:39pm Friday 25th April 2008

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