Council votes to protect services in face of forced reorganisation
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has backed a proposal to create a unitary authority on existing borough boundaries if local government reorganisation is forced on Staffordshire.
But members at the meeting of Full Council also voted in favour of writing to the Ministry of Local Government, Housing and Communities to say that Government plans to replace Staffordshire’s two-tier system with unitary councils are unjustified, unwelcome and unwanted.
Council Leader Simon Tagg said the position was simple:
The Borough Council is already delivering good, cost-effective services, accountable at a local level and supporters of forced reorganisation fail to explain how change will improve on the services residents already receive.
Full Council believes there is no public mandate for this upheaval and, like other authorities including Staffordshire County Council, is telling the Government that it’s not too late to listen.”
He added:
However we can’t leave the future of our communities in the hands of fate and risk a government-directed merger with Stoke-on-Trent and being made jointly responsible for its significant financial challenges.
Our proposed single authority on the current Newcastle boundaries would minimise the impact of reorganisation to local residents and businesses and takes into account the projected growing population, continuity of governance arrangements and public support.”
Six-in-10 people have backed the ‘Newcastle-only’ option in a recent public survey. The same survey of 1,380 people, bodies and organisations said only six per cent were ‘very confident’ that public services would not decline under much larger unitary councils.
A large majority in the consultation did not favour a merger with Stoke-on-Trent.
Despite its continued opposition to forced reorganisation, the borough council supports the creation of a Strategic Authority covering the whole of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent for the devolution of powers and funding from London and which would look at issues including transport, investment and infrastructure for the whole region.
Simon Tagg added:
There are two separate issues here. We think the creation of a Strategic Authority looking at those bigger issues for the whole region has merit, because it has potential to bring powers and funding from London.
However, Strategic Authorities will not be responsible for delivering day-to-day services such as collecting the bins or cleaning the streets and at a local level there is no demand - and no convincing argument - to rip up the existing system of local government in favour of giving residents something less than they already have.”