County council is a remote organisation that isn't improving our lives

I do find it to be a very remote organisation which doesn’t seem to do much to improve the quality of life for our citizens. Whether that’s the fault of our local county councillors in not pushing for a fair share of the ‘cake’ (ie the funds controlled by county hall), or that other parts of our very large county gang up against us (or, indeed, a mixture of the two) I don’t know.

I do see that neighbouring places like Rotherham and Doncaster each have their own councils and seem to be able to get finance to spend more in their communities. Nobody I speak to has a good word for Notts County Council. However it’s not just the ordinary folk who aren’t fans either. When you look at the role of the county council, one can see that central government has consistently taken away responsibilities. For example, it no longer provides any of the emergency services, similarly the former Trent Polytechnic, local colleges and many schools are now directly funded from Westminster, and the majority of old people’s homes are in private hands. Now, to cap it all, the county council has given over what should be the jewel in our tourist attractions, the Sherwood Forest Visitors’ Centre, to a charity after spending millions of public money on what I agree is a very poor new facility, which is not value for money in my opinion. I am sure a more local council would have a better understanding of what is needed at Edwinstowe to properly promote the worldwide legend that is Robin Hood. To add salt to the wound, the county council website states that the new centre is “20 miles north of Nottingham”.

Another example of Nottingham bias or what?

Paul Johnson

By email