Roger Gough explains devolution - video transcript

This transcript is for the video for Roger Gough on Devolution in Kent.

The video shows Roger Gough, the Leader of Kent County Council sat behind a desk in his work suit talking to the camera. He is being interviewed by an off-camera colleague.

Transcript

Interviewer: Roger, devolution can be quite a tricky subject to get your head around. What is it and why will it be a good thing for Kent?

Roger Gough: I think it would be a very good thing for Kent, because it's about bringing services and their delivery closer to residents. It's about decisions that affect people in Kent being taken by those who are accountable to people in Kent, not by officials far away.

Interviewer: It's all moving very quickly, isn't it? And I think some people are concerned, about the speed of it. They're concerned about the fact that the local elections may be postponed, and they're also concerned about the lack of democracy as a whole. Will they have a say in what happens next?

Roger Gough: Yes. I mean, there is a very challenging timetable which government has set, but which I think is vital [so] that residents have their say in this. If this goes ahead, and we've put in our application to government, then you would have a consultation, which government will lead in the early part of this year... so in the coming months. But, I think it is going to be a real challenge, but it's vital that residents have their say because this is about people in Kent. It's not about councils, is not about structures. It's got to be about what works for people here.

Interviewer: There's concerns about the democratic process and the potential of the May elections being postponed. Why is that necessary?

Roger Gough: I’ll be honest, it sits pretty uneasily with me. I'm an elected politician, I fight elections. I'm very used to doing so and expect to do so. What we've seen this time is that, these are some of the biggest changes in local government in at least 50 years, probably longer. They are a huge task. Ministers wrote to us just before Christmas saying that we should look to the question whether elections should be postponed to make space for all of that. But this is a postponement only.

It's of the kind that we've seen in other parts of the country, and I think it is vital, actually, that we weigh that against the real benefits of devolution.

Interviewer: And why, as leader of KCC and a resident of Kent, are you excited about this?

Roger Gough: I am genuinely very excited about this, even though it means massive changes to the council I lead, and potentially the end of this council. What I'm excited about is it means that there are going to be more decisions that, councils so far in Kent have not been able to take. They've been taken by officials, far away. That you get more local decision making, and more voice for Kent at a national level. I think that's going to make a real difference to how we do things, how we deliver services here for residents.

[Video fades to black and ends]