Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Night of reckoning for ‘invidious’ plan to merge four councils
The future of local government in east Kent could look a whole lot different this morning.
Four cash-strapped councils, including Canterbury’s, were last night set to decide whether to push ahead with plans to merge into a super authority.
The controversial reorganisation, driven by the urgent need to save money, would see the city council join forces with its counterparts in Thanet, Dover and Shepway.
Bosses in Canterbury say the alternative is severely slashing public services as it faces a £6 million shortfall in its budget.
Separate meetings of the four authorities were held last night, with all 39 councillors across Canterbury, Herne Bay and Whitstable gathering in The Guildhall.
With a large Tory majority, a vote to put the merger plans out to public consultation was expected to sail through but for the proposal to have progressed, all four councils needed to be in favour.
Ahead of the decision, Canterbury City Council chief executive Colin Carmichael said the financial case for merging was compelling but admitted the choice was an “invidious” one.
“It is not one that I ever thought I would have to advise councillors on, and I accept that nothing is ever black and white,” he said.
“However, on balance, the choice appears to me to be between an opportunity to preserve frontline services but disestablish a successful council for which we all have great affection, or to retain sovereignty but have difficult and unpopular choices to make in the next council.”
Those scrutinising the proposals complain there are too many unanswered questions and uncertainties about how an authority which stretches from Whitstable in the north to Romney Marsh in the south will function.
There are also fears that the council will become remote from its population and there will be a loss of democratic representation. If the merger goes ahead, the reorganisation will cost almost £7 million, of which £2.3 million is set aside for redundancies, largely among senior managers whose jobs would otherwise be duplicated under one new authority but it is estimated a super council will make annual savings of about £6.4 million.
It would also have far fewer councillors, down from 170 across the four districts to about 72, representing new, bigger wards.
Speaking ahead of the meeting Canterbury council leader Simon Cook said members faced a serious and complicated decision, but insisted his party members were being given a free vote. “Everyone has all the information they need and there is no party line on this,” he said.
“My personal view is that it is such a serious decision that it’s right and proper we ask the people of the district what they think about it. Everyone has a stake in this district and we want to hear what they have to say.”
If the councils agreed to a public consultation, the eightweek process will start today (Thursday). A meeting of all four authorities will then be held in July to decide whether to submit an application for the merger to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Yet again, all four authorities will need to agree for the process to continue. If it progresses, elections for the new super council will take place in May 2019.
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