Latest on plan to split Gloucestershire into East and West councils or create 'Greater Gloucester'

Summary

A decision on splitting Gloucestershire into East and West councils, creating a Greater Gloucester or having a single authority in place of the current seven councils is expected next week.

Details

Local government is being reorganised in the county and, under the current plans, who provides local services will change over the next two years Ministers want to see English district authorities merged with county councils as part of their drive to simplify local government and create, what they believe would be, stronger councils.

In Gloucestershire, that means the current district authorities in Gloucester, Cheltenham, Cotswold, Forest of Dean, Stroud and Tewkesbury would be merged with Gloucestershire County Council. And either one or more unitary councils would be created providing all of their services. All three proposals have been submitted to ministers.

These include the creation of a single unitary council to cover the whole area represented by Gloucestershire County Council. Another option involves splitting the area into two councils with one in the East made up of Cheltenham, Cotswold and Tewkesbury and another in the West composed of Gloucester, Stroud and the Forest of Dean.

And the third proposal, championed by the city council, involves the creation of a Greater Gloucester authority with a separate council for the rest of the county. A Government decision on local government reorganisation (LGR) is expected next week.

And Councillor Rebecca Trimnell (LD, Hempsted and Westgate) asked at today’s (July 8) corporate overview and scrutiny committee if the County Council had heard if there would be any delays to the announcement. Rob Ayliffe, the director for Policy, performance and governance at Shire Hall, said Whitehall is adamant that they should expect a decision on July 16.

“I imagine they will remain adamant until they point [that] we don’t get a decision on the 16th,” he said. “It is very difficult to call. I think we have to work on the basis of its coming and we will get the decision until we don’t.

“We will work out at that stage what we need to do. It is reasonable to assume a decision is going to be made. “Certainly, the statements Andy Burnham [who is expected to become the next Prime Minister] last made publicly suggest that we are still headed for more devolution and given that devolution and LGR have gone hand in hand previously that still seems to be the direction of travel.

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Report source: Gloucestershire Live