Newcastle-under-Lyme Council leader attacks single authority plan
The Leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has condemned the idea of a single ‘super council’ serving the whole of North Staffordshire.
Leader Simon Tagg was responding to a report published by Stoke-on-Trent City Council which suggests the creation of a North Staffordshire Unitary Authority, which would merge Stoke-on-Trent, the Staffordshire Moorlands and Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough into one single council.
If successful, that would mean the abolition of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and also affect other local authorities.
Simon Tagg said:
This proposal by Stoke-on-Trent City Council is unwelcome and it is noticeably lacking any detail about how this would benefit residents outside Stoke-on-Trent.
That’s because no-one is able to spell out what the real benefits of such a merger would be for residents, rather than talking about the imagined ones.
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council is debt-free and delivers effective services at the local level for its residents, delivering them at low cost while overseeing once-in-a-generation town centre regeneration, job creation projects and fighting Walleys Quarry on behalf of residents.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is in debt, threatening legal action against its schools and is only just regaining control of its children’s services after six years of Government supervision.
I would suggest an expensive, time-consuming reorganisation and integration is the last thing it – and the communities of Stoke-on-Trent – need.”
He added:
The City Council report highlights the advantage to the city’s finances of the increased tax income from Newcastle and the Moorlands.
In Newcastle we believe frontline services should be delivered as locally, cheaply and efficiently as possible, rather than through more remote super-councils, which would see the scrapping of our historic borough.
There was no demand in Newcastle-under-Lyme for this to happen before the Government’s surprise call for local councils to reorganise and there is none now: people fail to see how effectively being taken over by Stoke-on-Trent benefits them in any way.”