Source: City of Derby
Joint statement from
Amber Valley Borough Council
Bolsover District Council
Chesterfield Borough Council
Derby City Council
Derbyshire Dales District Council
Erewash Borough Council
High Peak Borough Council
North East Derbyshire District Council
South Derbyshire District Council
“Local councils provide a vast range of services that impact on everyone’s daily lives – supporting communities and neighbourhoods to thrive and grow, and creating opportunity for our people and places.
“As local leaders we take very seriously this responsibility, and in considering the very complex issues presented by Government’s call to restructure councils we are committed to working together with the shared goal of putting our communities first.
“We have explored a range of options that ensure that Derbyshire’s historic boundaries remain intact, while also creating new unitary councils of the right scale to deliver the best possible services for our communities.
“Our preferred option that meets government criteria involves the creation of two new unitary councils based on the existing geographies of the eight district and borough councils as the key building blocks, alongside the geography of Derby City Council.
“There is also the opportunity for the two new unitary councils to work in genuine partnership and collaborate on the delivery of all local government services, in turn ensuring the best possible value for money to local taxpayers. Most importantly, we believe these authorities would be of the appropriate size – the two councils would serve similarly sized populations of around 500,000 residents – to strike the right balance between retaining the strong local connections we already have with our communities and being financially sustainable.
“Our proposals also result in unitary councils of the right size and blend to engage fully and ensure our voice is heard at the East Midlands Combined County Authority and on key strategic issues close to our borders, whether that be our TransPennine and city links to Manchester and Sheffield in the north or our links to the East Midlands Freeport and Airport in the south.
“We don’t believe Derbyshire County Council’s plans for a single unitary council covering the whole of Derbyshire, excluding Derby, and serving a population of over 800,000 residents is the right approach. The organisation would be too large, and too far removed from the diverse communities that we serve.
“The county council’s plans would create a ‘doughnut effect’ around the city – leading to inefficient delivery of services and stifling economic and housing growth. It would also create significant disparity between the two unitary councils, in terms of both population and taxbase, and would therefore not meet the criteria the Government has set out.
“If local government must change, we want to make sure it does so in a way that keeps local services connected to the people who rely on them – creating councils which are big enough to deliver, and small enough to care.
“We have invited the Leader of Derbyshire County Council to be part of our joint discussions, but this has been declined. As the other local authorities in Derbyshire we have therefore moved quickly to draw up our own plans, which we believe clearly meet the Government’s criteria.
“To guide our final decisions, our proposals will be subject to extensive and meaningful consultation with residents, businesses, our workforces, partner public bodies, and the voluntary sector; ensuring all voices are captured and heard collectively.”