Ministers tell us we must merge all seven of Gloucestershire’s councils into either one or two ‘unitary councils’ carrying out everything from parks and planning permission to libraries and adult social care. See more on the detail of this merger and the two other proposals (at regional and parish level) currently being considered for local government in my earlier blog here.
The reorganisation of principal councils means that Cheltenham Borough Council will be swallowed up after 150 years of local democracy, along with all the other five district councils in Gloucestershire.
That’s worrying.
How far from Cheltenham’s regency town centre or Tewkesbury’s medieval heart will decisions on planning permission be taken? What price the support Cheltenham gives to Cheltenham Festivals, the Everyman Theatre or the Cheltenham Trust that runs the Pump Room and Town Hall once Cheltenham is subsumed inside a much larger council?
At least Government is asking our view on whether one giant super-council covering the entire county is better than two smaller unitary councils. Find their consultation and respond here.
I want a smaller council for our area because I strongly believe that small is not just beautiful but usually more accountable, responsive and efficient so my strong preference is for two smaller unitaries.
Any one community will automatically have a louder voice in a smaller local authority.
Two unitary councils instead of one would be more responsive and less bureaucratic.
It’s the same pattern we see in business. Small companies are more agile, more creative and adapt faster. Grow too big and that edge soon wears off.
And if we do get two unitary councils, I’m definitely for the straightforward east/west merger of districts and county responsibilties not the proposal for a ‘Greater Gloucester’ combined with a ‘Doughnut’ containing everywhere else in Gloucestershire, including Cheltenham. I can see that would work well for Gloucester but it would leave the rest of us in the worst of all worlds – a council with fewere resources but still stretched across pretty much the whole county and almost as remote as a single super-council.
Some people worry that the two unitary model would “split” Gloucestershire.
Well, we’d all still be Gloucestershire. Just like Bath is still in Somerset and Swindon is still in Wiltshire.
But that smaller model has happened almost everywhere else that has gone down the unitary road before us. Berkshire, Shropshire, Cheshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Buckinghamshire, Cumbria, North Yorkshire and most recently Somerset – all now represented by at least two unitaries. If Bath and Swindon weren’t subsumed into giant countywide councils, why us?
I’m sure all those other counties agonised over dividing county services too.
But in their Ofsted and Care Quality Commission ratings, you find just the same variety as in any other set of councils with many achieving real excellence. Children’s services in York and in North Yorkshire – outstanding. Adult social care in Milton Keynes – outstanding. Children’s services in Telford – outstanding. And in Wiltshire outside of Swindon – outstanding.
Bigger really isn’t always better. Just look at the state of our roads – organised over many years on a countywide basis. The county’s children’s services have struggled in past years too and it has taken a huge effort to get them back up to scratch. Compared that with the consistently well run services by our local borough council, including our parks and gardens and our recycling collection.
Even the financial data shows east and west would be practically equal – an estimated variation of only £20m on combined budgets of £850m or just 2%. The latest government funding formula strongly favours less well-off councils anyway so any inequality is likely to be quickly ironed out.
EF Schumacher wrote back in 1974 that “we are generally told that gigantic organisations are inescapably necessary” but that amongst real people “there is a tremendous longing and striving to profit, if at all possible, from the convenience, humanity and manageability of smallness.”
I agree and I’d urge everyone to respond to the consultation and back two smaller councils not one giant super-council.
