§ Dr. CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list any requests made to him for county council boundary reviews that involve the abolition of any county councils, other than Humberside; and if he will state his criteria for instructing the Local Government Boundary Commission to consider the abolition of any county councils as part of their reviews.
403W
§ Mr. Ridley[holding answer 4 April 1989]: Since the Local Government Boundary Commission for England has a statutory duty to consider the abolition of counties when carrying out its periodic review of county boundaries, I do not keep records of any requests that I receive for this to be done and I do not have criteria for instructing it to consider that question.
It was in view of the scale and strength of the representations that I received on the report of the Boundary Commission in which it concluded that, on the guidelines that it had been given, it could not recommend major change in the case of Humberside, that I decided to direct it to carry out a further review of that county without the limitation that it should propose the abolition of a principal area only where present arrangements clearly fail to provide effective and convenient local government.