A CONSERVATIVE councillor says it is important elected members “speak with one voice” to oppose local government reorganisation.
All 62 members of Staffordshire County Council signed a letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calling for the proposals for unitary authorities to be ditched.
It comes ahead of a deadline later this month for plans to end two-tier council areas – such as the county council and Lichfield District Council – to be submitted.
Disagreement continues over how this could look locally, with a number of different options being put forward, including once which could see Lichfield and Burntwood merged with Tamworth and East Staffordshire and another where the connections would also include Staffordshire Moorlands and Stoke-on-Trent.
But Cllr Philip White, leader of the Conservative opposition group at Staffordshire County Council, said it was important political differences were set aside in a bid to try and halt the changes completely.
He explained:
“Nobody in Staffordshire wants local government reorganisation, which is why I proposed that we write as a united council across political parties to call on the Prime Minister to halt this damaging reorganisation process.
“While we also oppose Reform’s proposal for delivering local government reorganisation by splitting the county east by west, we are pleased that they and councillors from other parties accepted our suggestion so we can speak with one voice in demanding that our county is able to stay as it is.”
The letter states that whilst the council is supportive of devolution to transfer decision making to local areas, structural reorganisation of councils is unnecessary in Staffordshire and could prove costly to the taxpayer.
It adds that in addition to the joint consensus across the political spectrum in the council chamber, there is widespread opposition throughout communities who fear the loss of local responsiveness that local government reorganisation would bring.
Staffordshire County Council letter to Sir Keir StarmerDownload
