If there is one thing better than a Lib Dem controlled council, it is five Lib Dem controlled councils working together. It was a great delight for me to facilitate a meeting of the Leaders of the five Lib Dem controlled authorities in Devon last week. It always amazes me that Lib Dems feel the need to reinvent the wheel as they face both opportunities and threats to their councils and their residents.
The five Devon Leaders have agreed to look, in the first instance, at five areas of activities to see where they can think things through together using the expertise within their councils; where they can do things together to promote efficiency of things like procurement and service delivery and where they can lobby together to achieve greater impact than councils going it alone.
With councils facing ever more serious existential threats this idea of collaboration between councils facing similar problems and have a similar attitude could lead the way to safeguarding their services. The Lib Dem Leaders do not want to be exclusive but will seek to include other councils in their proposals having set in train their own reports and thought processes.
Richard Kemp