480 town halls for London

The present London boroughs are far too big and make for remote, bureaucratic and unaccountable local government.

The Values and Vision group in Kilburn have prepared a study of the borough of Camden entitled Recasting London. This study has identified all the various communities within Camden, finding 15 in all. These are the villages and townships that were subsumed in the great London sprawl of the nineteenth century, focused round their high streets and market places, ranging from Kilburn in the West to Kentish Town in the East, and from Hampstead and Highgate in the North to Bloomsbury and Holborn in the South.

What can be done for Camden can be done for all the boroughs. In population terms (the 1991 census) Camden is 23rd in size in London. This suggests that, on the average, other boroughs will also have about fifteen communities within their boundaries. 15 times 32 is 480. A break-down of that order is the only way to make political sense of London. With 480 town halls a vast number of talented citizens could be actively involved in local government and community politics could become a living reality.

There will come a time when it is self-evident that Westminster and Whitehall have lost their grip. A sovereign London as one of a number of sovereign regions on the lines of the German lände, would mean the eclipse of its very own Leviathan - and the sooner the better!

Values and Vision, 3 Hinchinbrook House, Greville Road, London NW6 5UP (tel 0171 328 3709).