IT seems to me that Cllr Fothergill is asking us to start thinking about what services we actually must have and how we can best deliver them (Unitary plan for Somerset, County Gazette, May 10). We now live in a very different world.

It is a fact that the post-war consensus on top-down delivery by the state as the answer to this question is now breaking down. 

It has not delivered for so many people, it separates people from the consequences of the actions and it is clearly unaffordable.

There is no way we can ever find sufficient money to run our extensive infrastructure of councils, quangos, regulatory bodies etc etc that have grown up over the years. Nor is there a one size that fits all.

In our new, bottom-up world, we now have to work our own solutions: ones that will work for us in our particular situations. It is a task for all of us together.

This is all very uncomfortable and risky but life is neither risk-free or perfect and no government or system can make it so.

READ MORE: Unitary plan could save Somerset millions

I believe a healthy society is based on trust and we have to trust each other to work out what will work best for us in our part of Somerset.

To sit back and say it is all the government’s job - isn’t this just a cop-out? Let’s stop the blame game and do some hard collective thinking.

D BRADLEY
Kingston St Mary