Dear Editor, Ian Woods letter (Post Nov 6) raises a number of issues.The case to think regionally is overwhelming and is relevant to all our local authorities not just those in the Black Country.
We will have a much greater chance of influencing events within and beyond the West Midlands region if all the local authorities work together on equal terms, building on our shared interests and heritage, which underpins the West Midlands region.
We need to build on the flows of goods, services and people that define the West Midlands economy. The LEP bids, apart from that submitted by West Midlands Business Voice, reflect administrative groupings, none of which are defined by economic analysis or the urgent need to build stronger links between local consumers and suppliers within the region; between town and country, urban and rural .
The existing local authority leaders need to remember that their predecessors from the 1950s until recently decided that they needed to work together, if the future of the West Midlands region was to be determined locally and not by Westminster and Whitehall.
