County councils queue up to become unitaries

29 November 2006

Multimillion-pound savings and more integrated waste and streetscene services are being promised by county councils preparing bids to become unitary authorities.
At least seven county councils are hoping to convince the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) that unitaries covering large swathes of the country in sparsely-populated areas would provide efficiencies and improve services.
Shropshire and two of its five district councils have prepared a detailed bid for a unitary to cover a county which takes almost two hours to drive from one end to the other, and which has fewer than one resident per hectare.
Despite close working between the county and districts, there was a limit to what could be achieved with a two-tier system, Shropshire's bid stresses.
Negotiations to create a waste management contract integrating collection and disposal have taken seven years.
There was a ‘patchwork of responsibilities’ for street services, with county, district and town/parish councils each maintaining adjoining areas of land with three grass-cutting contracts. Residents also ‘rightly complain’ about having five different concessionary fare schemes in a county of 288,800 people.
Cllr Malcom Pate, leader of Shropshire, said the reorganisation would lead to ‘massive improvements’ to local residents, with an estimated £36M in savings over four years. Bids are also being prepared by Northumberland, Somerset, Nottinghamshire, Cornwall, Bedfordshire and Cumbria county councils for the January deadline for submissions. Most stressed the potential savings, with some already citing estimates – Bedfordshire £25M a year, and ‘at least £10M a year’ in Cornwall.
Cllr David Whalley, leader of Cornwall County Council, said a single, unified Cornwall was needed to respond to the ‘serious budgetary problems’ created by inadequate government funding and rising waste and care costs.
‘Next year, this council has to meet a shortfall of around £15M to maintain the current level of services. We need to find ways to deliver the high-quality services residents want and need in a more efficient and cost effective way.’
Many of the counties echoed Shropshire's call for a new, large unitary to be accompanied by new arrangements for local delivery.
Cllr Bill Brooks, leader of Northumberland County Council, stressed ‘a new, effective, efficient, and fit-for-purpose single council’ would be supported by new ‘much more local’ service delivery.
The DCLG intends to make its decision on the future structure of local government next summer.

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