Your reform calls are not on, your lordship

10:20am Wednesday 31st October 2012 in News By Tom Edwards

THE future of district councils across Worcestershire is up for debate today – with a controversial recommendation that they are scrapped set to be heavily criticised.

Lord Heseltine, who has been appointed by the Government to come up with ideas for saving public money, wants to see district town halls axed and replaced by unitary authorities. The content of his report, which will be published today, has already been leaked and suggests the Government back the biggest shake-up in history of local government.

But it has put him on a collision course with senior politicians in the county, who have labelled it “an enormous distraction” from continued efforts to share services and boost economic growth. Councillor Adrian Hardman, the leader of Worcestershire County Council, said: “It would be an enormous distraction from what we are trying to do. I also believe the costs would be far greater than any real savings and am not at all convinced any case has been made for it.”

Councillor David Hughes, leader of Malvern Hills District Council, said: “It flies on the face of what we are doing here. The Localism Agenda is all about evolving power to communities, but this seems to go the opposite way. We’ve got a system that works and are striving to be even more lean and efficient. “We give our district a voice – it would be a real shame to lose that.”

The nearest unitary area to this county is Herefordshire County Council, which was created in 1998 when it broke away from Worcestershire to form a new single-tier body.

But Councillor Simon Geraghty, leader of Worcester City Council, said: “I respect Lord Heseltine but this is an unhelpful suggestion, and a red herring. The costs of reform are always much more than anyone could expect, as well as a real distraction.”

COMMENT: PAGE 16

Comments(10)

Dickie of Dodderhill says...
11:36am Wed 31 Oct 12

Not surprised Councillor Hardman and his District Council friends are not keen on the formation of Unitary Authorities.

Wouldn't it mean fewer Councillors, crikey !!, we might even save some proper money.

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THE FACTS says...
1:17pm Wed 31 Oct 12

ARTICLE SHOULD ALSO EXPLAIN THE ROLE OF THE TOWN COUNCIL WHICH WILL BE RETAINED.... THEN THE READER CAN UNDERSTAND WHY DISTRICT COUNCILS ARE NO NEEDED.

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More Tea Vicar says...
1:24pm Wed 31 Oct 12

I can't believe the shower that are in power in the councils have the nerve to say that they are for 'localism'.

They are intent on pushing through the South Worcs Dev Plan.

And to do so, they have repeatedly used scare tactics and dishonesty, over-riding local opinion.

And then they want to shut down the A+E at Redditch, even though it's a completely bonkers idea.

And there's the incinerator, of course.

In short, the current set-up is hardly perfect. Though whether Heseltine's proposals are any better is another question.

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skychip says...
2:18pm Wed 31 Oct 12

Needs sorting out because there is too much repetition between authorities

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dulon says...
2:29pm Wed 31 Oct 12

I agree with you skychip there is a duplication of resources. The only problem that I can see now is the location of the local police station ! ????
Pershore police station is no longer manned but there is an enquiry desk at the wychavon desk next door If we lose the council offices where do we put our unfortunate police desk ?
Of course we all want to save money ... why not put the police office at the 7 11 tesco ?

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sarah and her chickens says...
7:19pm Wed 31 Oct 12

At least if it was at the 7 11 tesco it could stay open longer hours and weekends !!!

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Peter WR5 says...
8:26pm Wed 31 Oct 12

There needs to be a robust and reasoned debate about Worcestershire becoming a unitary authority. The argument for a larger authority including the City of Worcester is simple: Worcester is too small. Its tight boundaries mean that commercial and industrial expansion within the City is restricted and the economic benefit and status of larger enterprises that might be attracted likely to be lost to neighbouring authorities. Moreover, I cannot but believe that there are considerable economies of scale to be derived from having a unitary authority with the savings generated reserved for the provision of better services and/or reductions in council tax. Another argument in favour of a unitary authority is that its greater status should improve the quality of the pool of candidates for selection by the parties and those who no longer are selected could gracefully retire and support their communities in other positive ways.

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wooshman says...
9:22am Thu 1 Nov 12

In the long term it must be better for Worcestershire to have a single authority, there are so many shared services in place already it is only a matter of time, do we really need so many public buildings, confusion as to which council looks after which footpath and the farce of having the same district and county councillor claiming two expenses in many cases.

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Omicron says...
4:36pm Thu 1 Nov 12

Worcestershire needs two seperate authorities - North and South.
South Worcestershire would incorporate Worcester City, Malvern Hills and Wychavon and North Worcestershire would consist of Bromsgrove, Redditch and Wyre Forest.
Worcestershire County Council would still exist for overall control but would be greatly reduced in size.

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The Doosra says...
5:46pm Thu 1 Nov 12

We have creeping unitarism already with many services been run jointly. I'm not sure, therefore, that formalising a unitary structure would necessarily deliver economies of scale on a large scale.

When it was announced that the old Hereford and Worcester County Council was to be replaced, the first suggestion was for all existing authorities to be replaced by two unitary authorities in Worcestershire - North and South.

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