By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
South Cotswolds MP Roz Savage has rowed back on her preference for local government reorganisation in Gloucestershire and now believes a single council is the best option available after reviewing the evidence.
The Government wishes to do away with two-tier authority local government areas across England.
In Gloucestershire that would mean district authorities, which provide services such as rubbish collection, planning and housing, would merge with the Gloucestershire County Council, who are responsible for roads, education and social care.
Three options have been submitted to the Government which will consider the proposals and is expected to consult the public next year.
These options include a single unitary authority for the whole County Council footprint, splitting the county into a unitary council in the East and another in the West and another plan to create a
Greater Gloucester council with a unitary made up of the rest of the council surrounding it.
Dr Savage, who holds four Guinness World Records for ocean rowing, was among the five MPs who signed a joint letter supporting the East-West option but has since changed her mind and sees the single unitary as the best option on offer.
However, she would prefer the process was not happening at all and is not a fan of the devolution of strategic authorities.
“Even though it’s called devolution, to my mind, it’s actually more like centralisation,” she said.
“That really concerns me because a lot of people are already feeling like they are overlooked and unheard and policies are done to them and they have very little say.
“People are getting frustrated with that lack of agency.”
Initially, she supported the two unitary option for Gloucestershire because it “felt like less of a leap from the seven district councils to just a single unitary.
“My hope with that is people would still feel closer to their councillors.”
However, after reviewing the breakdown of costs she believes the single unitary option would be best.
“You can’t really argue with the numbers,” she said. “There would be much greater savings for a single unitary with a much shorter payback period.
“It’s £21m versus £11m and two years payback versus four to five years.
“So at a time when, in so many ways, it feels our councils are really struggling for money it just seemed to make sense to go with the one which made more economic sense.
“Hopefully it will leave more money available for everything else they have to do.”
Dr Savage said local government reorganisation is a huge task at a time when councils are “already feeling the financial pinch”.
She praised Gloucestershire County Council leader Lisa Spivey (LD, South Cerney) for how she has dealt with the process in being “absolutely professional”.
“It’s quite a lot to come into the middle of,” she said. “She really has my sympathies.”
Dr Savage said she will be working more to empower local communities with her Stronger South Cotswolds project in the new year “so that people still feel they have got someone representing their interests much closer to home”.
She said she is keen to work more with parish and town councils to help them be more empowered.
The single unitary council option has the support of Gloucestershire County Council, Cotswold District Council, Stroud DIstrict Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council along with Tewkesbury
MP Cameron Thomas, North Cotswold MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown and now South Cotswold MP Roz Savage.
The East-West proposal is supported by Cheltenham Borough Council while Cheltenham MP Max Wilkinson, Gloucester MP Alex McIntyre, Stroud MP Simon Opher and Forest of Dean MP Matt Bishop signed the letter in support of this proposal in January this year.
Cash-strapped Gloucester City Council supports the Greater Gloucester option they developed while the Forest of Dean District Council does not support any of the above and opposes local government reorganisation.