£8m set aside for redundancies as elections face further delays
THE next local elections in Somerset could be delayed again as the formal transition to the new unitary authority begins.
And it has also emerged that authorities have set aside £8 million for redundancy payments, suggesting the reorganisation will see significant job losses. Somerset County Council and the four district councils (Mendip, Sedgemoor, Somerset West and Taunton and South Somerset) will be replaced by the new Somerset Council in April 2023 following a decision by central government in the summer.
Elections to the new council were originally scheduled to be held in May 2022, having been pushed back to allow for a decision on the competing unitary proposals which were put forward.
But councillors have admitted that these elections could end up slipping to May 2023, depending on how the Government chooses to proceed.
If this occurs, it will mean Somerset residents will have gone six years without electing their upper-tier representatives – having last voted in the district council elections in May 2019.
County and district councillors met in Shepton Mallet last week for the first meeting of the local government reorganisation joint committee, which is overseeing the transition.
The transition from the five existing councils to the new Somerset Council will be achieved through a government instrument called a structural change order (SCO) – which lays out, among other things, the number of councillors who will sit on the new council.
The draft SCO, which has been shared with the committee, states that if elections take place in May 2022, there will be 110 councillors representing 55 divisions, with the election being held on the existing county council division boundaries.
However, these proposals are “under review” until communities secretary Michael Gove MP puts them before parliament in January 2022 – with the Government suggesting the elections may not take place until May 2023.
Councillor Bill Revans, who leads the Liberal Democrat opposition group on the county council, has said the Government has “misled” Somerset residents and called for no further delays in the local elections.
He said: “Our elections were postponed last year because some Conservatives thought the electorate might be confused. Now the Government is on the cusp of cancelling them again.
“The Conservatives are determined to cling on to power at County Hall at all costs. They have no mandate for an unelected sixth year in office. Democracy matters. Next May’s elections should not be cancelled.”
Councillor David Fothergill, in his capacity as leader of the Conservative group on the county council, replied that the transition had nothing to do with shoring up his party’s position.
He said: “It is 50 years since the last reorganisation in Somerset and will probably be the same before the next, so it is incumbent upon all leaders to put aside politics and do what is right for Somerset.”
The transition to the new council is expected to cost £16.5 million, with the changes expected to deliver annual savings of £18.5 million once the transition is complete.
The county council will stump up 80 per cent of the transitional funding (£13,222,381), with the remaining 20 per cent being split between the four district councils in proportion with their population.
Of the £16.5 million set aside for the transition, more than £8 million has been allocated for redundancy payments – indicating that substantial job losses are on the horizon.