Green district councillor supports Warwickshire joining West Midlands Combined Authority

Controversial plans for the county to become constituent members of the West Midlands Combined Authority are to be assessed by the county council

A Green Party councillor has highlighted his support for Warwickshire County Council joining the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) – provided the voice of every area is heard.

Councillor Keith Kondakor (Weddington) is one of two Greens on the Conservative-led Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council and a former county councillor.

He registered to speak at Thursday’s meeting of the county’s cabinet – the team of Conservative councillors in charge – where it was decided to proceed with work to assess whether Warwickshire should become full members of the WMCA under a directly-elected mayor.

The two Greens on Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council were the only ones to vote against a motion which signalled its intent to oppose “any proposal that would or could lead to the abolition” of the authority – the Tories and Labour voted it through.

That came forward from the Conservatives amid fears that becoming full constituent members could lead to all functions, currently split across two levels of local government in Warwickshire, being undertaken by the county as a single council, as is the case with each current constituent member of the WMCA.

Cllr Kondakor stressed the importance of every part of Warwickshire having a say on big issues if the plan comes to fruition but championed the need for wider, regional solutions to shared problems.

“It is really important that we join a transport authority,” he said.

“We have a whole lot of collapsing systems, in particular the stable climate that we have been used to for many years. We have a collapsing transport system, particularly public transport, we have a collapsing democracy and we have a collapsing financial system.

“We urgently need to get public transport sorted, get rid of all the barriers between being in Warwickshire and being in Coventry or Birmingham.

“The West Midlands Combined Authority is really important to moving rapidly to improve bus services, fares and routes, and train services, to act like they do in London where they have a large area where you can just wave a ticket and go anywhere. We have to do that quickly for the climate change emergency.

“We also have a democratic emergency so when we go to a combined authority, we need to do it with the right safeguards.

"I hope we have something like the assembly in London where there is proportional representation – it means every part of London and every political party has a check on the mayor.

“We have a financial crisis and that will also be helped by being in something like the combined authority. We need to work in one area, not in lots of silos.

“The opportunity is to be in a combined authority for transport, not the minutiae of day-to-day living – people are selling this as a takeover, it is actually strategic and the big-level stuff which needs to be done across the region.

“It is really important for climate change that we act with speed, not messing around or tinkering at the edges, we need wholesale improvements to public transport, regional planning, we need to be a on war footing to tackle climate change and cope with the flooding, fires, all of the things that are coming our way.

“Having the resilience of being a region helps so I do hope we move forward with this and I really hope we do it in a democratic way, not in a way that gains the system for one party or another.

“We have four different parties involved in the leadership of our district councils now, I hope when we go forward to regional structures that everyone has a voice and democracy is preserved.”

Views from Labour, Liberal Democrat and independent county councillors were put forward at the cabinet meeting but the Green Party was not represented.