Oral Answers to Questions — Environment – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 12 Mehefin 1991.
Mr David Nicholson
, Taunton
12:00,
12 Mehefin 1991
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what responses he has had from the south-west on his consultation on the proposed future structure and functions of local government.
Mr Michael Heseltine
Secretary of State for Environment
We have so far received eight responses from the south-west to the consultative document on local government structure.
Mr David Nicholson
, Taunton
Is my right hon. Friend aware that there is widespread support for his approach to this matter, which avoids a top down "Whitehall knows best" approach? Is he also aware that all parties in Taunton Deane, my local authority, want that authority to preserve its natural identity and do not want it extended to either Minehead or Bridgwater? Is he further aware that there may be a role for a slimmed-down county council covering planning, education and social services but that, above all, we do not want regional government?
Mr Michael Heseltine
Secretary of State for Environment
I can help my hon. Friend. We are under no illusions about the reluctance to adopt regional government, and we have no plans so to do. I hear clearly his views about his specific interest on the local structure of his authority. Doubtless, these matters will be put with equal eloquence to the local government commission when we set it up.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Whitehall is a wide road that runs through the heart of Westminster, starting at Trafalgar square and ending at Parliament. It is most often found in Hansard as a way of referring to the combined mass of central government departments, although many of them no longer have buildings on Whitehall itself.
