Councillors reject call for council shake-up pause

Nottinghamshire County Councillors have rejected calls to pause work on reforming local authorities.

Ministers want to merge some councils and scrap the two-tiered system of local government in an attempt to streamline services, and three options for Nottinghamshire were submitted in November.

All three would see the number of councils in the area reduced from nine to two, and a decision is expected from government next week.

A motion, proposed by Broxtowe Alliance councillor Teresa Cullen at a full county council meeting on Thursday, asked for the authority to write to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) calling for all work on the plans to be halted.

Cullen said the proposals have been "ill-thought-out" and "rushed".

"Maybe local government does need to be reorganised but that is a huge undertaking and it shouldn't be done quickly and it shouldn't be forced," she said.

"There's such a lot at stake for everybody. It's very important and it's important if we're going to do this that we do it right."

She added the two-tiered system "works perfectly well".

"A one-tier system might be necessary but it doesn't need doing on the back of a fag packet within a year."

Cullen's motion was rejected by 38 votes to 18.

The ruling Reform UK group voted against the motion along with Labour councillors, while Conservative and Nottinghamshire Alliance councillors voted for it.

Council leader Mick Barton called the motion "frivolous".

"We put our options in last November and we worked on them all last year. A lot of hard work by councillors and officers, and now we're waiting for the government to see which decision we've got," he said.

He added he did not agree with Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in general.

"If we do nothing and don't put an option in, the government will choose it for us, so at least we've got control of it," Barton said.

Labour group leader Penny Gowland said not engaging with the LGR process would be "irresponsible".

"Whatever happens next week, we've got to make it work for everybody and we've got to go forward in a positive way and this motion was just turning their back," she said.

"Everybody involved in local government really knows that having those multiple layers doesn't work. It just wastes money and causes confusion."

Conservative group leader Sam Smith, however, said the plans should go "back to the drawing board".

"I totally understand the requirement to streamline services. Councillors should be a one-stop-shop and you shouldn't have to contact that councillor for roads and this councillor for bins. It is a complicated system," he said.

"The Conservative group I lead are pro-unitary authorities but we're pro-them on a boundary that is relevant to the people within it and the proposals put forward for Nottinghamshire by the Reform council and the Labour government simply aren't good enough."

Nottinghamshire County Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council have backed "option 1B" which would see Nottingham City merge with Gedling and Broxtowe, with a second council created for the other council areas.

Meanwhile, Bassetlaw, Gedling, Mansfield, and Newark and Sherwood are supporting a north-south divide option, called "option 1E", separating them from the area currently covered by Nottingham, Broxtowe and Rushcliffe councils.

Nottingham city council has backed boundary changes, which would see the city expand into the urban areas of Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe.

Broxtowe Borough Council and Ashfield District Council chose not to support any of the three proposals.

A spokesperson for MHCLG said: "We are taking forward the programme of local government reorganisation on the basis of the current timetable, which would see decisions announced ahead of the summer recess period in July."

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