Time to shake up or break up? The future beckons
A call for Kent to split up into a series of single tier “do it all” unitary councils is continuing to divide opinion.
Two Tory council leaders have intervened in the debate, with one saying a radical shake-up of the way services are delivered to residents should be examined to see if it would improve the public’s understanding.
It follows a call by the Maidstone council leader Cllr David Burton for Kent to be divided into three or four unitary authorities, saying the current system is daft and confusing and there was a case for reform.
Cllr Matt Boughton, leader of Tonbridge and Malling Council, said he had a lot of sympathy with the idea.
Speaking on the latest edition of ‘Paul On Politics’ on KMTV, he said: “Whenever I receive an email asking me to fix a pothole Ihavetotosaythatitisamatter for Kent County Council, I think this is incredibly confusing and we have to look for better models.
“The reality is that all councils have to be small enough to care about the population they serve but need to be big enough to matter.
“And that matters in a Kent context; it matters in a regional context and in a national context because it is really important that councils have the ability to get investment into communities and act as an advocate.
“There is a big question going forward for district councils
given what has been happening nationally and over different models of government.”
But Cllr Peter Fleming, leader of Sevenoaks council, said the current system worked well.
“The county council can work as a large strategic authority and you would lose that if you went to three or four unitary authorities who would be working on a bigger geographical footprint and that ability to tailor services would go.”
While the debate is unlikely to lead to concrete proposals for reform, the interventions by council leaders does indicate there are some misgivings around the current system.
However, any move towards a new system of running councils would have to be initiated and led by the national government and is not an issue too high on the political agenda. n
It is not a debate that, on the surface at least, is likely to get much traction with voters more worried about the cost of living crisis and rising bills.
But with councils pleading poverty because of their own
ANALYSIS
rising energy bills and crippling inflation rates, perhaps it is time for a different template to be considered.
There is no doubt there could be some savings by cutting overheads and administration costs; with 12 separate district and borough councils in Kent, it is legitimate to ask the question as to whether this is a financially efficient model.
And it ought not to be beyond the ability of councils to negotiate joint contracts for certain services as they do so already.
But the main obstacle to reform is politics: councillors do not like the idea of streamlining and do not like the idea of relinquishing power, however logical it is. When four east Kent authorities drew up plans to merge to become a ‘super’ district council, the project foundered because of just that.
It is now 24 years since the last local government overhaul in Kent took place, with the creation of Medway Council – a unitary authority.
It would not be surprising if we had to wait another 24 to see any further changes.