Unitary Authority Update
I have recently been contacted by a number of my constituents regarding their concerns about the formation of the unitary authorities in Northamptonshire and the impact of Coronavirus.
Northamptonshire County Council recently found itself in a state of financial crisis. The Government therefore proposed the creation of two new unitary authorities for local governance. The new authorities will replace the current 2-tier system of local government and will be a significant step towards ensuring residents and businesses across Northamptonshire can in future have the sustainable high-quality local services they deserve. The new councils will align transport, housing and environment services and improve education and skills provision.
Parliament has passed legislation to replace Northamptonshire’s eight existing councils with two new unitary authorities on the 1st of April next year. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic the Government has announced that all polls scheduled for Thursday the 7th of May 2020 will be postponed for 12 months.
The Coronavirus Act 2020 received Royal Assent on the 25th of March. The Act postpones the scheduled May 2020 elections in England and Wales to the 6th of May 2021; and it also includes provisions relating to the postponement of by-elections.
Northamptonshire District Council and Northamptonshire Borough Council, along with Northamptonshire County Council were scheduled to be dissolved on the 1st of April 2021. They will continue to operate as they have done for the last few years with full responsibility for all of their existing functions.
The original plan was to have local elections in May 2020 to the two new Unitary Councils which would operate in shadow form until a go live date of the 1st of April 2021. In light of the recent changes due to the coronavirus pandemic, the shadow council will now be made up of all councillors who are already members in the Northamptonshire District, Borough and County Council areas. There will still be a shadow executive that is instead made up of 2 members from each council. My South Northamptonshire constituency will be a part of the new West Northamptonshire district and will therefore have eight members in the new shadow executive.
This model of using existing councillors to form the shadow and appointing the executive has recently been followed in Dorset and Buckinghamshire. It is more unusual to elect the shadow council via the original proposition for Northamptonshire. This means that the Government has in fact taken the decision to revert back to a more standard and frequently practiced procedure in the revised plans to establish the unitary authorities in Northamptonshire as a result of the disruption caused by the Coronavirus outbreak.
The shadow council and shadow executive will continue to plan for the new council to be ready for the 1st of April 2021. In Northamptonshire, local elections to the new council will now take place on the 6th of May 2021. Although I entirely appreciate that this prevents the people of Northamptonshire being able to participate in a local election this year, this is the only workable option that protects and maintains public health.
The Government will also establish a new Children’s Trust to deliver children’s social care across the county on behalf of the new councils. The Trust will ensure continuity by centralising children’s social care and follows a recommendation from the Children’s Commissioner Malcolm Newsam in a report from last year.
The proposal for establishing the new councils were assessed against the criteria they are:
likely to improve local government and the delivery of services across the area of the proposal, giving greater value for money, generating savings, providing stronger strategic and local leadership, and which are more sustainable structures
command a good deal of local support as assessed in the round overall across the whole area of the proposal
based on a credible geography, consisting of one or more existing local government areas and having a population that at a minimum is substantially in excess of 300,000
I am confident that the Unitary Authorities will better serve the people of Northamptonshire when they are established but in the meantime I know that the existing system of local Government is well prepared to manage the county throughout this crisis and beyond until next year's local elections.
