Source: City of Portsmouth
Portsmouth City Council recently asked for comments about Local Government Reorganisation from a purely Portsmouth perspective. Now people’s input is wanted as part of a county-wide survey, as this affects local authorities across the whole of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
The government wants to replace the current 15 councils in the region with fewer, single councils, covering bigger areas of around 500,000 people.
Portsmouth City Council Leader Cllr Steve Pitt said:
“Our priority is to get the best possible outcome for people and communities in Portsmouth.
“We’ve said from the beginning that Portsmouth should be left out of Local Government Reorganisation plans, because we already have one council which is financially stable. However, we are being forced to present to government plans to reorganise, so we are working with 11 other councils in our region to develop the best options for how new councils, including ours, could be organised in the future.
“It’s really important we hear what Portsmouth people think so their views can be included as much as possible in any future plans.”
Three draft options are available for people to comment on. All options propose that four unitary councils, plus the Isle of Wight remaining a single unitary council, deliver all council services to residents living in those areas.
As part of these options, people are also asked to comment on potential boundary changes for some towns and villages.
The options are intended to strike a balance between councils that are big enough to deliver services, but local enough to understand their communities. Key to the survey is understanding how residents, businesses and community groups feel about the changes and what area they think their future council should cover.
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight-wide survey follows a Portsmouth-wide survey, with results from that to follow.
The survey is open and will run until Sunday 27 July at midnight. People can take part here: https://ourplaceourfuture.commonplace.is
Following the feedback, individual councils are expected to submit a preferred option to the government in September.