This week sees local council elections. On Thursday, we will all be invited to go and cast a ballot to decide who will be our county councillor. Unlike county council elections in the past, this will be the last election for Worcestershire County Council as a stand alone council. The government has decided that having a wide group of county and district councils is a bad idea, and in a couple of years, Worcestershire County Council will be no more. Nor, for that matter, will Wyre Forest District Council.
Five district councils, one city council, and one county council, here in Worcestershire, will be dismantled, and replace by a single unitary authority. Furthermore, there will also be a regional mayor, the area of which is yet to be decided, but may cover two or three counties in the region.
We shall get a chance to see how this all works. Other parts of the country have been selected for the first round of changes and it will be interesting to see what happens. There are a number of arguments for and against the new proposals.
In favour is the obvious cost benefit. With seven separate councils in Worcestershire, there are 7 human resources departments, six local planning authorities plus the county one. Bins are collected by 6 districts, and disposed of by the 7th, the county. It clearly doesn’t make financial sense. Rationalise all of these councils into one, and there is immediate cost savings to us all as taxpayers.
But against this is the unescapable fact that democracy moves further away. Planning decisions here in Wyre Forest will be made by a council based, probably, in or around Worcester. Councillors in the far south, or east, of the county will be making decisions about us here in the north. I hope they are as careful about our interests as they hope we are about theirs.
These changes lead to some saying that this will be a zombie council, that councillors will not be able to make decisions knowing that the council will be disbanded within a couple of years.
I’m not so sure. I have met a lot of councillors and I have never failed to be proud of the work they put in and the dedication they show to their communities. Of course, I don’t agree with them all, some coming from opposing parties to mine. But elections are important, and it is always good to have a strong turnout. Thursday is your last chance to vote for Worcestershire County Council.
