New Unitary Councils
New Unitary Councils in Surrey will replace the current two-tier system of a County Council and 11 Boroughs or Districts. With a final plan needed by early May, the current councils cannot even agree on how many new Unitary councils should be formed.
At the core of the Government’s Devolution White Paper is the requirement that all areas currently with two-tier Councils (ie County Councils delivering some services alongside Borough/District Councils delivering others) should be reorganised into a single tier, known as “Unitary Authorities”. Interim Proposals for how to do this were required by 21st March from the County Council, working in collaboration with the Leaders of the Boroughs and Districts.
Despite this collaboration, the different groups have been unable to agree on a clear option and will await the feedback from the Government before creating a Final Plan in May. The Interim Proposals are contained in three documents:
- Part A – Joint Working
- Part B – County Council’s proposal for Unitary Authorities
- Part B – Districts’ & Boroughs’ Proposals for Unitary Authorities
All three documents can be found here.
The County Council’s proposal is for 2 Unitary Authorities – East & West – and proposes 2 Councillors per Electoral Division.
The Districts’ and Boroughs’ proposal is for 3 Unitary Authorities – East, North-West and South-West – and proposes 3 Councillors per Electoral Division; however some Councils (including Liberal Democrat-run Mole Valley) are waiting for clearer evidence before deciding which option to support. Reigate and Banstead Council is also supporting the inclusion of Crawley within Surrey’s Unitary Authorities.
We understand that the Government's response has re-introduced the option of a single Unitary authority for Surrey. In our view this would produce unacceptable loss of democratic representation and remove local influence on cherished local assets.
Mole Valley Liberal Democrats do not have a strong preference between 2 or 3 Unitaries; whichever option is chosen we expect to end up in a Unitary Authority alongside at least Epsom & Ewell, Reigate & Banstead and Tandridge, since the Government has ruled out splitting up current council areas.
Whichever option is chosen we support having 3 Councillors per Electoral Division for the reasons given in: How well will local residents be represented?. We also believe that the issue of outstanding debts inherited from some of the current Councils needs to be resolved rapidly to avoid new Councils being set up to fail and unacceptable financial burdens being passed on to local Council Tax payers.