On 16th December, the government published its
English Devolution White Paper.
The main thrust is the government’s ambition for all of England to have Strategic Authorities, either as mayoral cities and regions or non-mayoral agreements for counties or combined authorities. This will mean starting a new conversation for Gloucestershire and surrounding counties.
But the more alarming stirrings are happening right now in
Section 4.2.3: Local Government Reorganisation.
Where councils have a two-tier system such as we have, with 6 Borough/District Councils – Tewkesbury, Cheltenham, Gloucester City, Forest of Dean, Stroud and Cotswold and the County Council in Shire Hall in Gloucester, the suggestion is to make such councils into over-arching unitary authorities. This will save money and provide more efficient and joined-up services. However, this would greatly reduce local representation by councillors.
TGP Councillors have been working hard to gather information about local implications.
At the moment the action lies with the County Council. They have called an extraordinary Cabinet meeting next week to decide whether to respond to this letter from the Minister of State, Jim McMahon, and declare an interest in becoming a unitary in the first tranche.
If GCC do declare an interest which is accepted by the government, then the 2025 county council elections would be cancelled and new elections for a unitary authority would be held in 2026. At that point, no Borough Councillors would represent you, instead one County Councillor would cover an area whose size and boundaries would be decided during 2025.
Key Dates:
Wednesday 8th January: online briefing for Tewkesbury Borough Councillors
Thursday 9th January: Extraordinary County Council Cabinet meeting
Friday 10th January: Deadline for Councils to express an interest in turning unitary
BBC Article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c99xgk8557vo