Tag Archives: exeter

Lib Dem by-election winner “angry” at Exeter unitary ruling

It was recently announced that 26 councillors in Exeter and Norwich have lost their seats following a High Court decision over unitary status.

As the BBC reported:

Mr Justice Ouseley last month quashed a Labour government decision to allow the cities to take over county council powers and now members must stand down.

Each council lost 13 councillors and was ordered to pay legal costs.

The 26 councillors were due to stand for re-election in May but had been granted extensions in office as part of provisional arrangements for unitary status.

The judge has now ruled the by-elections must take place to maintain legality.

Leader of Exeter Council, Adrian Fullam (Liberal Democrat) said:

Posted in Council by-elections and News | Also tagged and | 11 Comments

As you were…three new unitaries cancelled

Labour’s plan to replace the existing councils in Exeter, Norwich and Suffolk with new unitary authorities has been cancelled by the coalition government.

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles today announced that the existing local government structures would remain.

The argument for the decision seems to be that the move to unitaries didn’t have the support of the local populations, two didn’t have the support of the independent boundaries commission and they were going to cause a lot of hassle for very little savings.

The real meat on this story looks to be down in note 4 to

Posted in Local government | Also tagged , and | 10 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Neil Sandison
    This one of a series of articles recently published in the Liberal Democrat Voice that defines our social liberal values . Frequently the hot house of Westminst...
  • Pawel Urbanski
    This is the right problem to be working on, and I think the answer may be less about the words than about the moments. In my experience people learn what we sta...
  • Simon Robinson
    It's good to have an MP putting herself forward for this. The manifesto seems a bit vague though. All good thoughts and nothing you can really disagree with, b...
  • Robin Bennett
    I am sure Alan will have the sympathies of all of us. The situation is sad and frustrating. Forgive me for making one small point, Alan: you said that 40 Ho...
  • Jonathan Brown
    @George - me too. I know that not everyone is happy about this, but it's perfectly reasonable policy and I think all care is being taken to try to reassure thos...