We are all in this together?

Not one of the better days in my trading standards life (40 years of it now!). These are very difficult times for so many of my professional friends and colleagues. Some of the pillars that have become such a familiar part of the trading standards world are crumbling before our eyes.

LACOTS was set up as the trading standards coordinating body in 1978. I worked for it for 13 years from 1989. It has done a fantastic job and is a real success story. Genuine value for money.

It became LACORS and then the Local Government Regulation, LGR, and I always feared for its future when it moved under the same roof as its parent the Local Government Association -feared for its independence and its top slice funding both of which were its core strengths.

Now it is to go and quickly, a victim of the Local Government Association, LGA, losing subscribers and money and a 38% cut over 4 years in top slice funds to the central bodies like the LGR.

Trading standards needs the LGR and never more so than now, but that won't persuade the LGA. Now therefore is the time to stay together, to keep close, to take strength from being a team working to fill the huge void left by LGR. But others see it differently and see opportunity. I try to understand them. I'm glad I'm not easily depressed.