Big questions on forced council reorganisation remain unanswered
An update from Ministers to forced local government reorganisation has failed to address the major issues, says a council leader.
Simon Tagg, Leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, is questioning why the current system of cost-effective delivery of local services should be ripped up and replaced by unitary authorities.
Having raised a series of concerns about the process and its rationale, Cllr Tagg said he was disappointed that a response from Government and accompanying statement from Jim McMahon OBE, Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, skirted round the answers.
Simon Tagg said:
The Government letter completely fails – again – to make the case for the forced reorganisation, explain how it will improve on the services residents already receive, or answer any of the big questions put forward by this council and other bodies.
It notes that every other council involved has expressed a concern about inheriting Stoke-on-Trent’s substantial financial challenges, but simply says that is for councils here ‘to address’ under the reorganisation.”
The letter also notes that Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s proposal for a North Staffordshire Unitary Authority is only drafted from a city perspective, and that the instruction that new councils should have populations of 500,000 has become guidance.
And where originally new councils were to be in place by 2028, the letter also notes that 2028 is now the most ambitious time for creating new authorities.
Simon Tagg added:
At the same time this whole issue over forced reorganisation is delaying progress on devolving powers to regional strategic authorities, which is where the benefits are for places like ours.
Strategic authorities wouldn’t deliver day-to-day services like emptying the bins but would bring money and power to Staffordshire to improve the big things like transport, investment and infrastructure across the whole area.
That’s what we need to be talking about and making progress on.”
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has called on its MPs to support that the Borough Council is already delivering good, cost-effective services, accountable at a local level and that forced change would not improve the lives of residents in the community.
The council also agreed that if it was obliged to pursue unitary status, it did not wish to join a North Staffordshire Council that would include Stoke-on-Trent City Council, due to several financial and performance issues with the authority, and the historic separation of the councils in North Staffordshire.
In that case the borough would prefer a single authority to be created on the current Newcastle administrative boundaries, or investigate partnering with other similar authorities.
Mr McMahon has been invited to the Borough twice to see first-hand how the council is performing.
Cllr Tagg added:
Residents have never asked for change and while we work to resolve this, we will carry on investing in Newcastle town centre, collecting bins and looking after our green spaces, along with the scores of other jobs we do every day.”
Cllr Tagg will be discussing this with borough councillors in July and is due to meet the new Staffordshire County Council Leader Ian Cooper soon to discuss cooperation on the issue, as well as raising the Government’s response with other council leaders.