STAFFORDSHIRE County Council’s leader says residents and businesses will be at the heart of plans on a new unitary authority.
Formal submissions have been made to the Government by members of the the Staffordshire Leaders’ Board.
Proposals are being considered to cover the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent area.
The first would see the Lichfield District Council area sit in a southern Staffordshire unitary alongside a northern body, while the other retains existing county council boundaries and works alongside Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
The submission to Government comes after Ministers demanded an end to two-tier council areas – and also outlines the potential to unlock further devolution powers through either a Mayoral or strategic authority option.
Cllr Alan White, leader of Staffordshire County Council, said there was still work to be done before a detailed plan was submitted in November – but vowed leaders would keep communities at the heart of any decision.
“As leaders, our priority in this process is our residents and businesses.
“There’s growing consensus that a Mayoral Strategic Authority will bring extra investment and freedoms to boost our economy further. This is the real prize we’re working towards.
“When it comes to the future shape of local councils, there is more work to be done.
“Councils are hugely complex organisations delivering hundreds of different services. There are significant costs and risks involved in reorganising these – especially for vital services like social care – so we must get this right.
“It is also critical that any proposals are relevant to local communities and support local representation and decision making.
“We’ll be doing detailed work in the months ahead to test our thinking and we’ll follow what the evidence tells us.”
Once the detailed plans are submitted, the Government will then make a final decision on which proposal is taken forward.
Changes are then expected to be fully implemented by 2028 at the earliest.
Jane Ashworth, vice chair of Staffordshire Leaders’ Board, said:
“The Government sees local government reorganisation as a crucial building block for devolution to work.
“That means we need unitary councils that make sense in terms of economic geography, financial sustainability and local identity.
“It also means ensuring that devolved power supports local communities to make the decisions that matter to them.”