It seems that there are proposals to create unitary authorities in England.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitary_authorities_of_England
Which doesn't tell us (me) much.
One of our local councillors spoke to me about it the other day, but she was spitting feathers.
Would anyone like to present a dissertation of reasonable length, which is comprehensible, not excessively biased, to tell ignoramuses like me what is proposed and when?
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The government want County councils to become unitary authorities because they think they are more efficient. Then join with other unitary authorities to form bigger regional bodies.
When will this happen? As soon as possible.
They'll get a fair bit of push back from conservative District and County Councils though.
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This is a thing round here right now.
In Northamptonshire we have a County Council which does stuff like Highways, Social Care/Services, Waste Disposal and some residual stuff for Education that's not now done by the Academies and Central Government Commissioners.
We also have eight District or Borough Councils within the County which do things like Planning, Household Rubbish and Housing. They are also the billing authority.
As has been well publicised Northamptonshire Council has been in a financial and organisational mess for years to the extent that it was technically bankrupt.
The Government's response has been to require that they are reorganised into two Unitary Authorities, North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. Each will be responsible for every service in its respective area. The theory is that they will be more efficient, only two (slimmed down) Senior Management structures, same with services like bins.
It's controversial with both main political parties. For those of us in the currently rural authorities like South Northants there's a perception we will lose influence over local stuff losing clout to interests of the urban areas which will potentially have more representation in the Unitary Council. This is particularly so in places close to town who are already threatened by urban spread - both housing and industrial/warehousing.
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One tier of local government replace two tiers.
In Herts we have
Broxbourne Borough Council
Dacorum Borough Council
East Herts Council
Hertsmere Borough Council
North Hertfordshire District Council
St Albans City and District Council
Stevenage Borough Council
Three Rivers District Council
Watford Borough Council
Welwyn & Hatfield Borough Council
plus Herts County Council
There are two proposals under consideration AFAIK, either combining them all into one authority which would handle existing County Council responsibilities and those of the Borough/District councils, or making two unitary authorities, a north-east one and a south-west one.
There are already many unitary councils. Buckinghamshire Council was formed this year I think combining Bucks County Council with Aylesbury Vale DC and a few others. Milton Keynes is already unitary.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitary_authorities_of_England#Current_list
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Similarly in Somerset there are proposals for a unitary authority for the county - or possibly two dividing east and west which are fairly different in character.
The key proposition is that by merging smaller authorities cost savings will be generated by getting rid of unnecessary duplication, giving clarity to who does what, and being able to better negotiate larger contracts with suppliers for waste and other services.
The negatives (perhaps) is that power is removed from locally elected councillors. This can mean local people have less control over that which affects them locally and personally. Existing councillors will be reduced in number which may leave them somewhat unhappy.
My personal view is that local councils do not generally have the depth of skills to run things effectively, and often tend towards the politically safe rather than progressive in terms of actions and policies. Certainly in Somerset there have been numerous good ideas, plans, aspirations etc etc - but a substantial failure to turn many of them into any sort of timely reality.
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They've been around in Wales for years. They seem to work OK, there were further proposals to create even bigger unitary authorities a few years ago by joining them up. Vested interests (and a particularly inept Minister in the Welsh Government) put paid to that jolly idea. I live in a village which has a "community council" which seems to work quite well ( e.g. spending a large legacy in the village rather than it disappearing to the four winds) p the next town has a town council which looks after minor things - bit like Dibley if you get my drift.
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Piece on BBC R4 yesterday (Saturday) The Week in Westminster talking about unitary authorities. Michael Heseltine, that nice man 'The Best Prime Minister We Never Had', contributed.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000mhwj
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Almost all major cities and London boroughs have unitary authorities. Greater Manchester has ten including the City council. Generally efficient but sometimes trying to sort out incompetent departments is difficult even if the councillor with responsibility for it is a personal friend. (As you might imagine I have recent experience of this, where the council officers act like Whitehall mandarins rather than under the direction of elected members).
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>> Almost all major cities and London boroughs have unitary authorities. Greater Manchester has ten including
>> the City council. Generally efficient but sometimes trying to sort out incompetent departments is difficult
>> even if the councillor with responsibility for it is a personal friend. (As you might
>> imagine I have recent experience of this, where the council officers act like Whitehall mandarins
>> rather than under the direction of elected members).
>>
I don't know your circumstances, but there's times councillors despite responsibility for a dept haven't the foggiest about it and bark out orders that make no sense. Works both ways I think.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Sun 13 Sep 20 at 08:45
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True. In this case the matter is paid for parking in the town centre. Having had a long period of no charges due to lockdown the council department decided to reimpose charges from tomorrow as there are clearly more people working now in the town.
I have no issues with that. But, we have quarterly contact parking on council run car parks and we were unable to use the last week or so of the January quarter. So when we enquired about new permits we were told that we could buy permits which started in July (so wasting two and a half months of money) or have permits that start in October. But what about the next two weeks we asked... can we have permits that run from 14th September and we will pay for the additional time? Oh no! Far too complicated to organise despite the permits being bits of paper...
So we have to buy hourly tickets. No thought, no imagination, no can do attitude. Just idiots who do not understand that we are paying customers. And they lied to my friend, were snotty about my head of finance and do not like constructive criticism. Time for a clear out, preferably at the pointing of a gun.
Last edited by: Netsur on Sun 13 Sep 20 at 10:47
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Think of it as VED, Netsur. Probably easier.
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>>>>No thought, no imagination, no can do attitude. Just idiots who do not understand that we are paying customers. And they lied to my friend, were snotty about my head of finance and do not like constructive criticism. Time for a clear out, preferably at the pointing of a gun.<<<<
Nicely sums up the many overpaid local authority employees.
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I wouldn't worry about it Duncs. Esher is about to be taken over by the GLC (Sorry GLA) anyway.
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>> I wouldn't worry about it Duncs. Esher is about to be taken over by the
>> GLC (Sorry GLA) anyway.
>>
Ooh!
Does that mean I will get one of those nice Freedom Pass thingys?
I have long envied people who had those. I will spend all day going round and round the Circle line wearing my mask!
I will be seeing an almost house trained councillor tomorrow. They will be questioned closely.
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There's a page here from Wikipedia covering recent and forthcoming changes to local government:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932021_structural_changes_to_local_government_in_England
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Unitary Authorities in England - sooty123
