The piecemeal creation of unitary authorities in once two tier areas is a trend moving in one direction but it is messy for police and fire authorities, which match the old upper tier authorities. Now we also have mayoralities, which in places have introduced another new tier, and here in the Fens we have the Greater Cambridge Partnership too.
For me, English governance is an absolute mess. I far prefer the Polish/German approach, where there are several layers of authorities that each take responsibility within that area. For example:
I live in a village, so we have an elected village mayor and an elected village council. The village mayor has de facto responsibility for the village hall and a few other things owned by the village, like the football pitch and playgrounds. The village council controls the budget for the village, which isn't very high, but it includes things like considering applications for discounts on using the village hall.
The village is part of a larger municipality made up of (I think...) 15 villages, and the municipality is where things like planning permission and 'citizen matters' are dealt with. The municipality owns schools, most roads, the municipal water company, etc. There's an elected mayor and elected council, so the mayor acts as an executive leader and the council as a parliament. The council deals with a lot of issues that are delegated by the central government, such as issuing ID cards and registering births/deaths/marriages.
Then we have the district council, but the head of the district council is appointed by the elected councillors rather than being elected directly. It's a weakness of the system, but it does result in the situation that independent kingmaker councillors tend to hold the position as a price of their support. The district usually handles issues like driving licences and car registrations, as cars are registered to the district of residence. Formerly, it used to be that every district also took responsibility for issuing passports, but this was changed at some point in the past.
Next, there's the provincial parliament, which handles things like EU funds and other 'big' things that are too big for the municipal or district councils to deal with.
It is a multi-layered bureaucracy, but each level is clearly defined and you always know who is responsible for what. I need to register a car? District council. I need a new ID card? Local council. And so on.
The issue in PL is that devolution wasn't completed to a satisfactory level, so each province has a provincial governor appointed by central government, who can (and often will) overrule provincial, district and municipal councils on things for petty political reasons. This then causes court cases in the administrative courts, where they decide if the veto of the governor was legal or not.
However, on the whole, it seems much more sensible than the mess of the English system.
For those who are not aware, it is a small village located at the edge of Lord Derby's Estate / Safari Park near to the M57 between Prescot and Kirkby. However, one think I would agree though, get rid of the Labour councillors as they are not interested in the people they suppose to serve!
