This afternoon I attended the “AGMA summit” at the Manchester Central conference centre. Present were Councillors and senior officers from all ten Greater Manchester authorities, plus assorted partners and voluntary groups. For those who don’t know, AGMA is the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities – an umbrella group for the 10 Councils in Greater Manchester.
The summit was compered very ably by former broadcaster Jim Hancock, but I came away wondering what on earth the point of it all was – a mixture of items that most people are already familiar with together with some self-congratulatory back-slapping, with very little room for genuine discussion and contribution.
The only interactivity prior to a short and dull Q&A at the end was a farcical “interactive” session with a series of loaded questions about City-Regional Governance.
I understand the summit cost the taxpayer in the region of £30k in hard cash, and the cost of lost officer time (most senior officers from all 10 Councils seemed to be there) would add to that considerably.
I won’t be going again and I would be very disappointed if the AGMA leadership embarked on another similar summit. We’re moving in the right direction in terms of devolving power back to Greater Manchester but today’s meeting was far from a shining example of devolution in action!
Couldn’t agree more Ian. The whole afternoon acheived absolutely nothing. Can I have those four hours of my life back please?
Same old horse with a different name, agma, gmc whatever you want to call it. A waste of time and money before so why would it be any different now.
What makes these people think that we need so many layers of local government, after all they manage to cockup almost everything they do on their own without the aid of another nine councils.
I can see the attraction for lead council members as it will inflate their self importance and ego even further than it already is.
Even at a ward level a lot of the councillors seem to have forgotten that they are there to represent, some of them seem to think that they are now the “Lord of the Manor” and are beyond reproach.
Oh well, I will have to wait until May 2011
Regards,
Mark