JUDGING from the correspondence regarding local

government re-organisation, it is obvious there is

something very wrong here. What is the hidden agenda?

Exeter cannot run a unitary Devon without satellite offices

to replace the various borough councils. We are not told

what the 28 new Community Boards will do. Will they be

paid or unpaid? We are not alone in this scenario. Other

English counties are having to grapple with the same

problem.

Our local government has been tried and tested over

many years. We do not need a totally foreign system to

replace what we have, and what works well. Yet it seems

that this is to be the plan.

In a regional newspaper, chairman of the Boundary

Committee Max Caller stated in a long article '. . . We

think a unitary authority serving the whole of Devon could

have the potential to wield influence at regional, nation

and European level . . . '

It is surely the job of the government to wield influence on

Europe, not ours.

Has it been suggested that larger unitaries, countrywide,

would open the door to EU funding? It would certainly

open the way for more European interference in our

domestic affairs.

If so, will an area the size of Devon, Cornwall plus Dorset

and Somerset become a region? The South West Regional

Assembly is waiting to take centre stage and rule overall.

Anne Crampton

Oaklands Park

Okehampton