The possibility of the biggest council reform in Derby and Derbyshire in decades could save taxpayers lots of money, says the leader of Derby City Council. Councillor Nadine Peatfield started the engine on what could be a “major change” in how local Government is organised in Derby and beyond when speaking at a full council meeting on Wednesday (January 15).
But time is ticking with both Derby and Derbyshire councillors having to submit a bid on how it could work by March.
Councillor Peatfield said in her address that the Government wants to remove all two-tier authorities (such as county councils and district councils) to become “unitary” councils, which deal with 100% of local services, such as Derby City Council. Documents state there is a “presumption in favour of creating new unitary councils with a population of 500,000 residents or more”.
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She said currently there are ten local authorities in Derbyshire with ten chief executives, ten council houses and ten sets of councillors. She feels reducing the tiered bureaucracy will mean greater savings for residents in the long term.
Cllr Peatfield told the meeting: “As councillors we hear the phrase ‘what a waste of taxpayers’ money’ a great deal of the time. It might be tempting to say this applies to local government reorganisation – but I would disagree.
“I don’t believe this is a waste. If done responsibly, unselfishly, thoroughly and collectively, it will save a great deal of taxpayers’ money. Hard-earned money can be paid back to frontline services that we have seen underinvestment in for years.”
Alan Graves, a Reform Derby councillor, welcomed the idea but said this was nothing new and reorganisation had been considered before by the city’s previous Conservative administration. He said: “The need to bring about a joining of two lower tier and county councils together has to be a good idea in my view.
“It is quite confusing in the county when one set of councils are responsible for some areas of council business and a separate council is responsible for other areas. Ordinary people struggle to understand the difference. Then there are the savings that can be had – as pointed out we have a chief executive for every council.”
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Liberal Democrat councillor Lucy Care said it was vital residents had their say on any major restructuring. She said: This is a major change.
“I very much believe we shouldn’t be rushing it. I believe we also need to engage with the public because at the end of the day this is their democracy. We are just part of it.”
There were reports last week that there were plans for the local elections at Derbyshire County Council to be postponed this year because of the council shake-up plans.
Barry Lewis, the county council’s Conservative leader, was tasked by central Government with the decision on whether to postpone the 2025 elections, due to take place in May, until 2026, and given three weeks to decide by January 10.
If supported, this would give time to plan massive local Government reform, including the potential scrapping of district and borough councils and the formation of a much larger authority with all those combined powers – including the planning of housing.
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