County council leaders have hit out at their district and borough counterparts as tensions over plans for a single-authority Leicestershire continue. Acting leader of Leicestershire County Council Deborah Taylor has denounced allegations that her authority has not engaged with other Leicestershire councils over the planned reorganisation of local government structures, which will effectively see the districts scrapped.
Councillor Taylor's comments follow criticism from the heads of the seven district and borough councils, and Rutland County Council, who claim the county council has had “no discussion” with them on the pressing issue. The disagreement between Leicestershire's local political leaders stems from differing opinions over how many authorities the county should have as it looks to reorganise, in line with Government plans to do away with two-tier local government set-ups across the country.
The county council, Leicestershire’s largest local authority, believes a single political body for Leicestershire, excluding the city and Rutland and operating on the county's existing borders, is the “common-sense approach”. The districts, boroughs and Rutland, however, have said the best option would be to split the county into two separate parts - a move which Coun Taylor has said she believed would save less money and result in a postcode lottery when it came to services for residents.
READ MORE: Leicestershire leaders explain what council reorganisation would mean for you
However, the leaders of the districts and boroughs have said they believe that two county authorities, split on a roughly north-south divide, with Rutland joining the northern council and Leicester again remaining separate within its existing boundaries, would ensure the new councils “remain[ed] connected to their communities”, while still delivering some savings.
Coun Taylor has branded the district and boroughs’ accusations that there has been no engagement with them as “simply not true”. She claimed that two meetings had been arranged for all the leaders to meet, and that the second meeting was cancelled by the districts before it could take place. She has further claimed that the districts and boroughs had changed their position on the question of whether Leicester should expand its borders into the county.
Both the county’s and the districts’ and boroughs’ stance on Leicester’s borders is likely to cause friction with the city. City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby believes that Leicester needs to expand beyond its current footprint for Leicester City Council to remain financially viable and for it to meet its Government-set housing targets. Early expectations for the reorganisation were that Leicestershire County Council and Rutland County Council agreed with and would support that move, with Coun Taylor claiming that the districts and boroughs shared that “consensus” at the time. The expansion now does not feature in either of their proposals.
The acting leader has levelled her own accusations against her district and borough counterparts, saying their proposals had not been discussed with the county prior to being made public. She has now called for representatives from each of the authorities to meet next week so that options can be “discussed transparently and openly”. However, the meeting will not be open to members of the public nor the Press, LeicestershireLive was told.
Coun Taylor added: “Rather than the district councils seeking to engage with the county council, the reality was that they chose to exclude the county council from their meetings. I’m aware that the district councils have said they have “appraised all options” and have opted for a north/south split of the county. At no point have they published any details of this proposal.
“That’s why I’m calling for a meeting [...] so all of this can be discussed, transparently and openly. The county council’s proposals for single unitary council outside of the city was already on record and I note that the district councils’ proposal for a unitary structure, which does not include an extended city boundary, announced last Friday, was never discussed with the county council. Again, the districts chose not to engage with the county council.”
The councils have until Friday, March 21 to submit their initial proposals to the Government for consideration. Leicestershire County Council is currently seeking public opinion on their suggested approach, with residents able to find the survey on the authority’s website.
The districts and boroughs have said they would be carrying out initial engagement with stakeholders on their plan over the coming weeks. No information has been given on what form this will take.
