Adur and Worthing are Councils of the Week

Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis with his series celebrating excellence in our Town Halls

Firstly I want to congratulate all the Conservative Councils who are doing the right thing for hard working taxpayers and are freezing their council tax. If councils have not yet set their budget I hope they will do all they can to freeze this year along with the majority of councils. I especially want to congratulate those who have managed to actually give residents a council tax reduction! Superb work!

This week’s Champion Councils are particularly noteworthy for their historic addition to local government finance. Adur and Worthing Councils were the first in the UK to form a partnership to share services, back in 2006.

A successful joint refuse collection and recycling service led the two councils to explore further options for service sharing.

They have since formed a single senior officer structure and shared more services – leading to savings of over £9million by the end of this financial year. Adur and Worthing Councils really led the way in the proper use of taxpayers’ money and I look forward to seeing more innovative ideas coming out of their ongoing partnership.