Two councils for whole of Lincolnshire 'takes away meaning of local in local government'
North Lincolnshire Council 's Labour opposition group leader has reacted with dismay at the suggestion of Conservative council leaders to whittle the county's councils down from ten to two.
A letter was sent earlier this month by three upper tier Lincolnshire council leaders, Cllr Philip Jackson (North East Lincolnshire), Cllr Rob Waltham (North Lincolnshire), and Cllr Martin Hill (Lincolnshire), to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner on future devolution in the county. It was prompted by a government call for local government reorganisation proposals, which called for the removal of two-tier areas - where district councils exist as well as upper tier county councils.
North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire are single tier unitary authorities. The letter by the trio of Conservative council leaders expresses interest in two councils only for the whole of the county. It is also requested consideration is given to cancelling North East Lincolnshire's 2026 local elections, if the idea is progressed.
Opposition political councillors have expressed strong disapproval of the letter. Labour group leader Cllr Len Foster (Brumby Ward) said his initial observations on the letter was it was "nothing more than a power grab". "The proposals contained within the letter totally take away the meaning of the word ‘local’ from the phrase Local Government.
"The English devolution white paper highlights significant challenges for local government in England and yes there might be some benefits for the larger urban areas across England," he said. But the problem arises when working out the geographical area required "to meet the white paper's preferred population base of approximately half a million residents".
He said the best case scenario under the basis of the Government's criteria was Lincolnshire "is divided into two very large unitary authorities as a minimum". But he added: "It is not beyond the realms of possibility that we could end up with a unitary council from the Humber to the Wash."
"As far as Lincolnshire is concerned, it is my personal belief that the mandarins in Whitehall will simply carry out the Government's edict without any empathy for the locality and the residents that live within the area. This weakness has now been exploited with the three leaders of the primary authorities who see an opportunity, which on this occasion, they believe will further enhance the politics of their own party without due deference to one single person that lives within the Greater Lincolnshire area."
Given opportunity to respond, Cllr Waltham said: "I’m surprised that Scunthorpe Labour have woken up only to contradict their Labour London bosses on an issue like local government structures, particularly when they were silent when their pals in Government targeted local pensioners by removing their winter fuel allowance, targeted family farms in North Lincolnshire with a tax that will see them owned by big businesses and then hit the local council with an £8m national insurance bill this year, let alone the impact on local jobs and businesses. The local Labour Party are asleep and the residents that elected them deserve better."