Cllr Brian Silvester: The Local Government Review is fundamentally flawed

Cllr Brian Silvester, Leader of Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council, describes a damning new academic report of the Local Government Review.

Last year the Government called for bids from the two tier shire counties in England to form Unitary Councils. The Government did this even though they knew they did not have the legal powers to do so. In March 2007 the Department of Communities and Local Government announced that 16 of the 25 bids would go forward for consultation. In July 2007 nine Unitary Council bids were given the go ahead, Cheshire, Cornwall, Durham, Northumberland, Shropshire, Wiltshire, Bedford, Exeter and Ipswich. If all these new Unitary Councils are implemented it would result in the loss of 35 Councils and the loss of thousands of jobs and Councillors. This proposed major local government upheaval in many parts of the country has been festering away for over a year with precious little recognition in the press or other media. You can’t help feeling that if this had been happening in the shires around London the media would have been more interested. 

Local Government experts, Professors Steve Leach of De Montfort University and Michael Chisholm, Emeritus Professor at Cambridge University, have produced a ‘no holds barred’ indictment on the Government’s proposals for new Unitary Councils in England.  The report was compiled at the Authors’ own volition as an unprompted independent assessment based on their direct experience with the 2006/07 process. Both academics have a long standing interest in structural re-organisations of Local Government and have published widely on post 1976 re-organisation initiatives.  Their latest report reflects concerns about the way the current re-organisation initiative is being conducted.  Pulling no punches, the report is a damning indictment of the Government, its civil servants and the Local Government proposers of change, who have simply failed to even consider the views of residents or the electorate, never mind failed to put those views first.