We have had better local government in recent years. I have yet to meet a local authority member who has said that better local government makes it better than it was. It is not working. In our county two or three months after a strategic policy committee meets it meets again to adopt the minutes of the previous meeting. At that stage its decisions go before the next full meeting of the local authority which deals with the decisions taken by the SPC three months previously. This is how the work of SPCs is filtering into the system. No one can say the system is working effectively or efficiently. It is holding up progress. This year the decisions of my local authority relating to local improvement schemes were dealt with by an SPC which had to send its decisions directly to the main body of the council before being referred back to another meeting of the SPC to be ratified. A decision which had been ratified by the main council could be changed by a subsequent meeting of an SPC. I ask the Minister and his officials to examine this matter. SPCs are holding up progress within local authorities and slowing down the process of local government.