The Boundary Committee for England has just published its report into local government arrangements in Devon (including the Lib Dem minority control council of Exeter), Norfolk and Suffolk.
In Devon, the Committee has put forward a single unitary council for the current Devon county area.
In Norfolk, the Committee has put forward a single unitary council for the whole of Norfolk.
In Suffolk, the Committee has made two proposals: a unitary county of Suffolk (the Committee’s preferred alternative proposal for Suffolk); and a two-unitary pattern comprising an Ipswich & Felixstowe authority and a Rural Suffolk authority.
These are proposals that are alternative to the original bids for unitary status made by Exeter City Council, Norwich City Council and Ipswich City Council, originally made in 2007. The Committee has recommended today that all of these original bids are not implemented…
Now that the Committee has provided its advice, it is up to the Secretary of State to take a decision on whether:
- to implement the original (i.e. Norwich City Council/Exeter City Council/Ipswich Borough Council) proposal, with or without modification
- to implement the Committee’s alternative proposal (as published today), with or without modification
- take no action
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has stated that anyone who wishes to make representations on any unitary proposal that he is considering, or on any matters connected with it, can do so by 19 January 2010.
All such representations should be made in writing and sent to the following email or postal addresses:[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Unitary Structures Team
Zone 3/J1
Eland House
Bressenden Place
London SW1E 5DU
Mark Valladares has blogged his views on these proposals over on his blog.
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5 Comments
They want to abolish Exeter as an entity. But they’re not touching Torbay at all. So Torbay, a unitary that’s too small to govern itself effectively and suffers from massive diseconomies of scale (the incompetence of the barely-elected mayor notwithstanding) can stay as it is without being changed, but Exeter, a city of comparable size with a much longer history of self governance, gets thrown onto the scrapheap.
I’ve lived in both, I have friends in both. This recommendation makes no sense whatsoever.
Never mind those places; when are we going to get the GLC back?
These people/proposals are unspeakable. With a few exceptions (Cornwall?) Unitary counties represent the victory of unaccountable, anti-democratic one-size-fits-all devolved administration of central government diktat over diverse, plural, democratic local government. Aaaargh! And before anyone asks, I’m a County Councillor.
I’ve written a blogpost with my reflections on the Boundary Committee’s report on Devon.
MatGB – Your Torbay comparison is useful. It’s certainly an odd situation that Torbay is unitary (and apparently staying unitary) and it’s proposed that Exeter loses what little political autonomy it has. Do you think Torbay is too small to be unitary then? I don’t know enough about its council.
Kevin – I couldn’t agree more. And it’s interesting you saying that as a county councillor. I hope I haven’t demonised Devon CC in my post. I do think the previous LibDem Devon administration could have done things differently though and we wouldn’t have ended up in this mess. Maybe not, though. The politics got quite complicated!
The unitary proposals are so typical of central government
trundling on like a steam roller down a hill and the driver
totally oblivous to the people around him waving,shouting,
protesting and trying to get him to listen to them.
IT SHOULD BE STOPPED NOW