We have today been brought up to date by officers with regard to the ongoing Local Government Review.
The timetable has already been upset by a series of judicial reviews from councils in Norfolk and Devon, where antipathy to the scheme seems much more vehement than here in Suffolk. We will probably not now hear from the lovely Hazel Blears until March, which leaves very little time to cancel the County Council elections in June. I understand that an order has to be made by 23 April at the latest. Elections to the new unitary, or more probably, unitaries will probably take place in April or May 2010.
Some people are clearly of the view that due to the potential for further delay, the process will not after all go ahead, and the status quo will be maintained. While feeling pleased at one level since Babergh will be saved and my term of office will not be cut short by a year, at another I feel that it would be wrong to stop the process now. A huge amount of time has been invested by both councillors and officers looking at the financial case for the establishment of unitary arrangements in the county. It also remains true that a small authority like Babergh will struggle to deliver services in a cost efficient way in the longer term.
The best bet remains that the outcome will be two unitaries, as originally suggested by the Boundary Committee. However, the message from the financial assessments seems to be that the main difference will be that Lowestoft will remain in Suffolk, which rather undermines the rural/urban distinction underpinning the Committee's thinking.
Another factor that could be taken into account by the Government is the current economic downturn. Is it really sensible to undertake an exercise that is bound to cause job losses and possible service disruption at a time when unemployment is rising and people are feeling pretty miserable? Probably not, but this Government isn’t really known for its common sense.
