At a recent meeting of the Association of Greater Manchester Councils (AGMA) the representative for Bury Council voted for a Manchester Combined Authority (MCA).

Unlike the current AGMA where our councils work together with others in the Greater Manchester area, the MCA would have been legally binding and able to force through policies on Bury residents even if we disagreed with them.

The combined authority would have paved the way for key powers over areas such as transport and economic development to be handed to the MCA. Only Stockport and Trafford who abstained have put a halt to this. This was another attempt of taking local democracy away from local people.

If you disagree with your council you can vote them out, but with this combined authority, changing your council would have made no difference.

We already have a perverted form of parliamentary democracy with Scottish and Welsh MPs forcing through policies that only affect England.

What we don't need is another stitch-up by local politicians who want to take democracy even further away from the people whom they claim to represent.

Stephen Morris English Democrats