Councillors at North Warwickshire Borough Council have unanimously agreed to submit an Interim Plan on Local Government reorganisation to the Government as required by the 21st of March.
The Government has announced that all remaining ‘two-tier’ local government areas, such as Warwickshire which has a County Council as well as District and Borough Councils, will have those Councils abolished and replaced by a single tier.
All the Councils in Warwickshire were required to set out the main options which will be considered further ahead of a final submission in November. The Interim Plan, agreed by all of the District and Borough Councils in Warwickshire, sets out that there are two main options within Warwickshire – a single Council covering the whole of Warwickshire, and two unitary Councils, one in the North (North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth and Rugby) and one in the South (Warwick and Stratford).
The District and Borough Council have set out how they will assess both options before coming to a final preference in November. Initial studies suggest similar efficiencies are possible in both options and set out the cost of making the change, which again is similar in both cases. Warwickshire County Council will submit a separate plan as they have decided that only a single Council across all of Warwickshire should be pursued.
Speaking as the Plan was submitted, North Warwickshire Borough Council Leader Councillor David Wright said:
“Whilst this is not work that we would be prioritising at the moment as the Council has a very ambitious agenda of service improvements, the Government have made it clear that this is what they want to do. I am grateful therefore to all Councillors and Officers for working very positively together and I am pleased that there is unanimous agreement. I am also pleased that the other District and Borough Councils have agreed on the best way to proceed.
Whilst we will consider both options, I have some serious concerns about any assumptions that there should just be one mega Council for the whole of the Warwickshire area. There are insufficient links between the North and the South of the County for it to be served by a single Council and therefore to not even look at the other option of a more local Council is in my opinion wrong.
This is particularly the case when initial studies suggest a similar level of potential savings, and we have seen from recent events that larger Councils often struggle to turn these potential savings into reality. We know from Somerset, where a single Council was created with the promise of nearly £19m savings per year, that they are now having to cut budgets by £66m and receive special Government help.
The final submission is not a decision we will take by ourselves, and we will be engaging with residents, Town and Parish Councils and other local stakeholders to ensure we have thoroughly considered all the options.”
The Council’s Interim Plan can be found here together with a number of frequently asked questions.