30 June 2016
The leader of the Green Party group on Norwich City Council today declared the devolution settlement dead, after Norwich City councillors unanimously voted against the proposals for Norfolk and Suffolk last night.
All 32 councillors present, from Labour, the Lib Dems and the Green Party groups on Norwich City Council united to say that Norwich did not wish to continue with the devolution proposals outlined by the Treasury.
The vote followed a more narrow defeat for the government’s devolution plans at Breckland Council. Rejection by Suffolk County Council on Thursday would officially end the deal, but even with Suffolk’s approval, it would be very difficult to proceed without Norwich on board.
Green Party group leader Martin Schmierer, a long-standing opponent of the deal, said: “This deal is effectively dead. Given that Norwich and Breckland councils have both rejected this so called ‘devolution’ deal, it is clear that this ill-thought out and hastily drawn up set of proposals is no longer viable.
“There is no public appetite for an elected mayor. As the council debate showed, councillors have looked carefully at the detail of the proposal and have no confidence that it would benefit the people of Norwich or the wider region.
“The current paralysis at the heart of the Conservative Party means that there is no one to negotiate with there. Indeed, even if that were possible, the scale and the nature of the changes needed to make it palatable to the Green Party would be so huge that as far as we’re concerned, it would make more sense to tear up the document and start afresh.”
