Rutland County Council and the seven districts of Leicestershire have announced their thinking on the new authorities for local government reorganisation.
They propose Rutland joins with Melton and Charnwood in a new North Leicestershire unitary with a separate South Leicestershire authority as well as one for the city. The leaders say jointly in a statement they don't believe the system is broken but if it has to change then it's vital we get it right for our communities. They say the one authority for the whole of Leicestershire and Rutland, excluding the city, which Leicestershire County Council propose would be too remote and inefficient.
Rutland and Stamford's MP, Alicia Kearns, urges Rutland County Council not to close any doors to working with their neighbours, including South Kesteven. Leader of Rutland County Council, Gale Waller, says there have been conversations with our eastern neighbours, however she's also aware of the government's wishes to align new authorities with emergency services.
"If we go into a combined authority, which is the government's priority at this moment. that's all they're interested in, really, and beyond that, we are fighting to keep something. If we go in, as we are at the moment, they will get rid of Leicestershire, they will get rid of the Leicestershire districts and create a unitary, because that's priority. And they will say, during the course of that, oh, well, you're only 40,000 people. You can go in as well. And we won't get a choice, and we'll be in a one Leicestershire model, and that's the one thing I'm fighting against, which is why we need to get our configuration now, before we are forced into that, and it will happen, they will force us. And the bargaining we've got at the moment is, we are a unitary, so we have to agree to this combined authority, so we want to agree it in a configuration that is least disadvantageous and possibly advantageous to our population because although we are financially sound, it becomes increasingly more difficult year on year as our government grant diminishes."
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