LAST WEEK I suggested, perhaps naively, that we might be seeing a new, softer side of Wiltshire Council’s leader Baroness Scott, aka Call Me Jane.

An article she has penned for the Local Government Chronicle puts the kibosh on that little idea.

She’s been busy telling Buckinghamshire what to do.

She’s a bit upset with the four district councils there who don’t fancy suffering the same fate as Salisbury, being swallowed up by an all-controlling unitary authority.

And she’s miffed that they are holding up Wiltshire as an example they’d rather not follow.

“We created a new type of council capable of marrying strategic scale, efficiency, greater democratic accountability and better local decision making,” she boasts. “Accusations that the new council will be too remote or will create a democratic deficit are predictable lines of attack.”

Well, now. I wonder why that might be.

Anybody round here remember being asked whether they wanted the Trowbridge takeover?

So “democratically accountable” is Wiltshire that it didn’t dare put the question.

Anybody remember being asked what we wanted it to do about parking, the youth service, or the police station? Sure, there have been ‘consultations’. But what have they changed?

Mrs Scott lambasts the councils in Wiltshire that didn’t want to be abolished. They apparently put aside public resources to “unnecessarily challenge the decision and mislead residents over the choice they faced”. How jolly well dared they?

Er, what choice was that, by the way?

If the democratically elected councils of Bucks don’t want to follow in her footsteps, what’s democratic about forcing them to? They and their electorates seem prepared to accept two smaller unitaries, based on what they perceive as local identity and shared interests, but that won’t save enough money, according to the article. And that’s what it’s all about.

Here’s a good bit. It’s now “statutory guidance” that any new councils to be created must serve a population “substantially in excess of 300,000”.

Puts paid to any lingering hope of a return to a self-governing south Wiltshire, doesn’t it?

What next? Baroness Scott declares it’s “immoral” not to draw on all the talents from the district and county councils in Bucks to devise this new authority.

And she insists any new council areas should present “a credible geography with a clear local identity”.

Funny, she hasn’t drawn on the talents of many councillors representing Salisbury in her cabinet. And do you think she honestly believes that our county, divided by the Plain, has “a clear local identity”? Perhaps she does. I suppose that’s why Salisbury’s arts organisations have been renamed Wiltshire Creative.

Finally, the Baroness’s article talks about the need to give Buckinghamshire voters “guidance” by ruling out some types of council to run their affairs.

In other words, tell them what they can’t have, then ‘guide’ them kicking and screaming towards what she calls “the only prize that is now realistically on the table”.

If that’s not dictating to people, I don’t know what is.

It also appears to be government policy.

Anneriddle36@gmail.com