Service delivery should be devolved 'as much as possible' under new unitary regimes

20 August 2008
 
Unitary shadow authorities, are looking to devolve service delivery to the area and parish level.

Councillors and officers laying plans for the nine new councils are hoping they can make the savings that were the rationale for establishing the unitary authorities, while meeting the public demand for responsive, local service delivery.

Councillor Andrew Tebbutt, Liberal Democrat executive member for corporate services for the new unitary Northumberland, was committed to ‘devolving as much as possible to the local level’.

More than 90% of Northumberland has parish or town councils. There was scope for councils with the capability, including Alnwick, Morpeth and Hexham, to provide services such as grounds maintenance, pothole and other highway repairs, and street cleansing, he said.

But the bid by the previous Labour administration to commit the authority to make £24M in savings ‘will not make it possible to do everything we’d like to’.

He continued: ‘If, say, only 30% of parishes wanted to do grass-cutting, and that made the cost of doing the remaining 70% unaffordable for the new unitary authority, we wouldn’t do it.’ Consistent standards ‘have to be maintained’.

There would continue to be area-based operational bases – with the six district offices ‘the minimum position’ – and three area committees for democratic scrutiny, he said.

In Shropshire, the unitary’s need for consistency will be balanced with the requirement for local delivery by having three heads of service responsible for geographical areas, each of whom would also be responsible for one service county-wide.

Paul Shevlin, current chief executive of Oswestry Borough Council, said: ‘We want consistent service delivery across the county. We can’t have buck-passing.’ He said if the head of the northern area was also the head of highway maintenance for the whole county, then he or she would be above the head of the southern area in the hierarchy for that service.

The shadow unitary authority for Shropshire was also consulting parish councils to establish whether they had a desire to take on the delivery of any additional services.

Durham’s unitary, meanwhile, intends to increase the number of area offices for highways maintenance from the current two to ‘three or four,’ according to Roger Elphick, the acting director for environmental services.

This would ensure that each office had a ‘reasonable workload’ while being the centre of operations for additional services such as street cleansing.

buying biaxin

buy discount clarithromycin buy clarithromycin purchase biaxin

Register now for full access

Register just once to get unrestricted, real-time coverage of the issues and challenges facing UK transport and highways engineers.

Full website content includes the latest news, exclusive commentary from leading industry figures and detailed topical analysis of the highways, transportation, environment and place-shaping sectors. Use the link below to register your details for full, free access.

Already a registered? Login

 
comments powered by Disqus
 
 
 

Related topics