Letter: Green welly brigade are not the only ones loyal to our historic counties

Sir: Christian Wolmar (29 April) is quite right when he says that a botched local government reorganisation would be a disaster for local democracy. He is quite mistaken in saying that district council chief executives had 'tossed in a grenade' with the suggestion that single-tier authorities are the best solution for local government.

Most people understood the aim of the review to be to achieve unitary local government, because local people in district council/

county council areas are confused about which delivers what local services. That cannot be good for local accountability and democracy. People want to know who to blame - or congratulate - for local authority services, and how they can influence them.

In Redditch, which is about to be 'reorganised' by having its own MP, the borough council has always spoken for the local community, not just on local authority matters but for the NHS, buses and other issues. There has been a Redditch Council for 100 years, and people want all of their local services managed by local people.

This is the primary argument for unitary local government. True, it is not the only way of delivering local government, but it is the one that local people can best identify with and, as such, must be good for local democracy.

Yours faithfully,

STELLA MANZIE

Borough Director

Redditch Borough Council

Redditch,

Hereford & Worcester