By Rachel Charman
In a Parliamentary debate over regeneration in Southend yesterday, Rochford and Southend East Conservative MP James Duddridge attacked local organisations.
Though Mr Duddridge did not mention any organisations by name, he called for them generally to be dissolved.
Mr Duddridge said: “I say candidly that there are far too many organisations with their fingers in the pot.
“We have extremely good directly elected councillors, and they should be allowed to get on with the job of spending the money as local residents desire, rather than the money going through an alphabetti spaghetti of acronyms and quangos.
“Frankly, those not only add little value, but are sometimes destructive of the value the council could add.
Addressing Shahid Malik, Parliamentary under secretary at the Department for Communities and Local Government, Mr Duddridge continued: “I ask the Minister to get rid of some of those organisations and to fund everything directly.”
Mr Duddridge also raised the issue of the 2001 census, following on from an earlier mention by fellow Conservative MP David Amess (Southend West).
Mr Duddridge said: “The failure to count 20,000 people in the 2001 census costs Southend £7 million each year, so counting correctly is the most fundamental single thing the Minister could review when considering the future prosperity and regeneration of Southend.”
Mr Duddridge’s final point related to transport in and around Southend. He said: “Living in Southend sometimes feels like living on an island in the corner of Essex.
“We need to speed up traffic along the A127 and A13. The sea-to-sea rail line has been award winning, and despite the problems that National Express has had elsewhere in the eastern counties, I urge the Minister to consider awarding the contract and franchise to the existing management of the line, who have been absolutely fabulous.
“Given our road infrastructure problems, I would be very disappointed if the existing management of the sea-to-sea railway were not involved in the longer term franchise for the line.”
