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Councillor Simon Geraghty, Leader of ������Ƶ County Council, said:  “Over the last twenty-five years in Local Government, and in my time as both a District and now County Leader, I have strived to make our system of two-tier Local Government work for the benefit of the residents we serve.

“Just prior to Christmas, the Government signalled the end of two-tier governance in the English Devolution White Paper and therefore our district and county councils will be abolished. I think it is essential to emphasise this is not optional, the Government could not be clearer that whether we like it or not this is happening, and we are to face the largest change that we have seen to local government in over 50 years. We will be required to move to a unitary structure in a relatively short timescale, alongside developing devolution proposals for a Strategic Authority to ensure our residents benefit from devolution.

“It is now incumbent on us to get on with making the change at pace to seize the opportunity to shape our future and work towards a new Council to meet the needs of our area – a One ������Ƶ Council. This reform is necessary to unlock further devolution for the county, in line with the Government’s longer-term ambitions.

“It is for this reason we have put in a request to Government to postpone elections scheduled for May. This will enable us to fully focus on working with partners and stakeholders to work up proposals and seek to implement this on an ambitious timescale to see a new “shadow authority” elected in May 2026 and for all our councils in ������Ƶ to end in 2027.  

“I believe this will demonstrate to Government that we are serious about unlocking devolution and shorten the period of instability and disruption for our staff, partners, residents and stakeholders as we move through this process and provide clarity for the public that we are getting on reorganising Local Government into simpler, streamlined structures, as required by Government.

“Our proposals will seek to deliver the most efficient and effective new Council as over 80% of the total local authority spend is already at a county wide level. ������Ƶ County Council delivers key services such as Children’s & Adults Social Care, education, highways and waste disposal. Disaggregating these would negate economies of scale, add to complexity and cost, reduce the impact of service delivery and, importantly, not meet the criteria set out by Government in relation to the size of unitary that will be sustainable in the future.

“A One ������Ƶ Council will give us the best opportunity to create an authority that is more financially sustainable, able to deliver good local services and positively shape and improve the area we all care about.

“What this means for now, is nothing changes in the way we deliver services for our residents and businesses.”

Below is a copy of our letter to Jim McMahon OBE MP Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution.

Download: Devolution and Local Government reform for ������Ƶ letter to Jim McMahon OBE MP (PDF)