Fears villages will lose out if all Cambridgeshire councils replaced with one ‘huge authority’

Fears have been shared that villages will lose out if all the councils in Cambridgeshire are replaced by one ‘huge’ authority.

Councillors at Fenland District Council shared concerns that the rural areas could get overlooked compared to the cities and market towns.

Last month Jim McMahon OBE MP, the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, asked the leaders of the county’s seven councils to work together to create a new ‘simpler’ local government structure.

Currently, the area has a two-tier system, with some services delivered by Cambridgeshire County Council, such as social care and highway maintenance, and others by district councils, such as housing.

The county is also covered by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

The government has said it wants to see a move to unitary councils that provide all the services currently shared between the county and district councils.

Peterborough City Council is already a unitary council but is included in the reorganisation plans.

The changes could see fewer councils covering a larger area, or a single council covering the whole county.

Council leaders have been asked to submit an interim plan by March 21, and to submit a full proposal by November 28.

Councillor Chris Boden (Conservative), leader of Fenland District Council, said local government reorganisation was “long overdue,” but argued the process being pursued by the government was “not the right way of doing it”.

He raised concerns about how quickly the government wanted to see changes made and said he was “certain” doing things so quickly would see the area “not end up with the best outcome”.

Cllr Boden added that it would be a “desperately bad situation” if a singular unitary council was created for the whole of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

Councillor Anne Hay (Conservative) said she worried the rural areas would “never get anything” if a unitary council was created for the whole area including the cities.

Councillor Maureen Davis (Conservative) said she also feared the “villages will lose out” if they were included in a single unitary council, and suggested two unitary councils would “give us a little bit more of a chance”.

Councillor Steve Tierney (Conservative) said the reorganisation plans were a “terrible thing to be doing to this area”.

He said a “huge authority” would be more remote and have fewer councillors to help people.

Councillor Steve Count (Conservative) said he believed creating one unitary council for the whole area would be outside of government guidance for the Combined Authority.

He said there could not be a Combined Authority of just one council reporting up to the Mayor and that there would need to be at least two authorities.

Councillors also raised concerns that the reorganisation would cost millions-of-pounds and not deliver the savings hoped for.

The chief executive of the county council has previously said it is anticipated local government reorganisation will cost “at least £18.6million” across all of the Cambridgeshire councils.

Cllr Tierney argued that anyone who believed the changes would save money “lived in cloud cuckoo land”.

He said: “We are going to be paying for this for years and years.”

Cllr Count said Cambridgeshire was “already terribly underfunded” and that they should actually be asking the government for more money.

He raised concerns that the reorganisation will ‘only make the situation worse’.

Councillor John Clark (Independent) raised concerns about the impact of the changes on council staff and said good members of staff could be lost over the next few years.

He also said he hoped the leader would be able to find the time to give his attention to the local government reorganisation, highlighting that he is a town councillor, district councillor, and county councillor, as well as being a councillor in London.

Cllr Boden said he could give his “complete assurance” that he is “fully able to take the amount of time necessary to deal with this”.