Rutland County Council has guiding principles to assist in assessment of up to four proposals

Wednesday, 15 October 2025 14:52

Rutland County Council's cabinet has approved a set of guiding principles to help assess up to four proposals for local government reorganisation

being presented to councillors next month. Leader Gale Waller says they offered to help with the South Lincolnshire proposal but were turned down and are still awaiting details on that and others to join with Leicestershire with or without the city. She admits it took them by surprise when Rutland was included despite its small size. It's not a failing authority, which is what the government was trying to address first of all.

‘Unlike with Leicestershire our officers haven't been actively involved in developing the proposal in Lincolnshire despite the fact our chief executive offered that they should, the offer wasn't taken up by colleagues in Lincolnshire. So we don't know exactly what they think and it's important for two reasons that members understand come November. The first is that members will need to evaluate what financial sustainability, high quality and sustainable public services for Rutland actually means. And if you haven't got that data and information from Lincolnshire, members won't be able to judge whether those things apply in Lincolnshire equally with the Leicestershire model. And the second is that none of us want to see Rutland disappear. We all would prefer Rutland staying as it is. And I would remind everybody that when the White Paper came out, there was no indication that Rutland would change, because the White Paper talked about small, failing unitary councils and we were not and are not failing. But by the time we got the letter from the minister in February with the invitation area, we were well and truly included’.