IN LAST 10 YEARS 4,000 LAWS IMPOSED ON COUNCILS

Around 74,000 pages of rules and instructions have rained down on local councils from Westminister since the year 2000. That's the equivalent of nearly 40 pages for every day that Parliament was sitting.

This avalanche of paperwork that has descended on town halls for them to wade through over the past decade is revealed in a new report from the Local Government Association, the central body which represents local authorities throughout the country.

The sheer quantity of form filling, data returns, reviews, inspections and micromanagement from central government has wasted so much tax-payers money. Too many pen pushers and file carriers rather than council employees delivering real services to the public.

The coalition government is committed to giving councils more freedom, cut bureaucracy and allow decisions to be made instead  by locally-elected people.  A good start has been the decision to abolish 192 unaccountable quangos.