Local government

Local Government

In order to understand what obstacles are in the way of the railway being re-instated, it is useful to understand how local government is organised, and who is in control of what.

Local Councils

At the lowest level are the local town and parish councils e.g. Portishead Town council, Easton-in-Gordano Parish council and Portbury Parish council. A separate body, the Gordano Councils Transport Group, comprising councillors representing the local town and parish councils in the area, looks at transport issues in general but particularly supports the reopening of the railway.

Unitary Authorities

At the next level are District Council or Unitary Authorities. The railway runs through areas covered by two Unitary Authorities - North Somerset Council and Bristol City Council. The Severn Beach branch line, with which we propose to link, also runs partly through the South Gloucestershire Council area.

West of England Partnership

The West of England Partnership is a partnership of the 4 local councils from the former Avon county area, (i.e. Bristol City Council, North Somerset Council, South Gloucestershire Council and Bath & North East Somerset) which was set up to address jointly matters that need to be dealt with at a ‘Greater Bristol’ or ‘sub-regional’ level, such as transport, housing, planning, tourism etc. This Partnership is to be wound up and replaced by the Local Enterprise Partnership (see below).

Local Enterprise Partnerships

The Coalition Government has decided to abolish Regional Development Agencies and and replace them with Local Enterprise Partnerships to be in place by March 2012 at the latest. The West of England LEP is being set up. The Government have also indicated that some of the RDAs’ previous functions may continue at a national, rather than local level.

South West Councils

The statutory responsibilities of the South West Regional Assembly have now been transferred to the Strategic Leaders Board, part of South West Councils. South West Leaders brings together 20 local authority Leaders from the county and unitary councils including district Leader representation.

Defunct bodies:

South West Regional Assembly

This unelected government quango was wound up in Dec 2008. It was the designated Regional Planning Body and produced a document called the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) which created a blueprint for the way in which the region grows during the next 20 years. Though it covered transport issues, there was only one line on heavy rail! It recommended building 92,500 houses, much in green belt land. The statutory responsibilities of the South West Regional Assembly have now been transferred to the Strategic Leaders Board, part of South West Councils (see above).

Government Office for the South West

GOSW represented Central Government in the South West region, and thus dictated overall policy. The Government has reached a decision to abolish the Government Offices.