The noble Baroness is of course right. I apologise to those present. The speed with which the Minister finished off North Yorkshire completely fooled me about when he was about to start on Somerset. I thank the Committee because as the only representative of Somerset here, and having represented a Somerset constituency in Parliament for 30 years, I would like to comment on the changes that are taking place without the Minister looking too worried that I am going to seek to overturn the proposals that he has made. He can relax on that.
In my earlier career, I was, among other long-forgotten things, Minister for Local Government for three and a half years and I was in the Department of the Environment, as it was then. My noble friend Lord Heseltine and I worked together in that field looking at the activities of local government.
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I accept that bringing in unitary authorities leads to more efficiency and more opportunity for strategic development for the county. However, there is obviously a concern about whether it becomes more remote from any individual authorities. Noble Lords may know that I am Lord King of Bridgwater. Bridgwater was a constituency that stretched a long way out to the west and included in it was west Somerset. When we look at the arrangement for this new unitary authority, the abolition of Taunton and Somerset West is the one that gives me some concern—not for Taunton, which will look after itself. I used to have Porlock, Oare and Minehead and the further west parts of Exmoor and that part of the county. I make one plea. I accept that this idea is sensible and think I am right in saying that my successor is one of the ones who is not too enthusiastic about it. I think the other Members of Parliament for Somerset are in support of this for the greater efficiency and the greater strategic approach that can be taken. However, we must try to ensure that the centre of power does not become too remote from those in the more remote parts of the proposed new area.
That is my only plea at this stage and I hope that the Government, in putting these proposals, will try to ensure that the interests of the more remote parts that might otherwise be left out are taken into account. I am not quite sure of the mechanism but there needs to be some way of ensuring that every part of the new unitary gets proper representation. The Minister has already said that there are 110 councillors in this new authority—that seems pretty big to me—and I think west Somerset will have eight of them. The warning on the packet is that they could easily be overridden and forgotten in approaches. I am very grateful to the Minister for listening to my concerns on this having, as I said, for 30 years represented part of what he is talking about today. I understand why it is being done but I am still going to stand up for the people I had the honour to represent for a time and make sure that their interests are taken into account.