A group of 12 of the 15 councils in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, including Rushmoor Borough Council, is working together to develop proposals for the new councils that will provide all services to their residents in future.
The government wants to change the current ‘two-tier’ council structure in most of the county, where residents have services delivered by both Hampshire County Council and district or borough councils. Three other areas, Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight, already have single councils, known as unitary authorities, that provide all local services.
Instead, the government has asked councils to propose how they could join their areas together to form new councils that would each be responsible for all local services in that area.
In response, Rushmoor Borough Council and the other 11 councils have been collaborating on developing options that would work best for their residents, businesses and wider community.
The other councils are Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Eastleigh Borough Council, Fareham Borough Council, Hart District Council, Havant Borough Council, Isle of Wight Council, New Forest District Council, Portsmouth City Council, Southampton City Council, Test Valley Borough Council and Winchester City Council.
Together, the councils are working on options that would replace the current 15 councils with four new unitary councils on the mainland, keeping the Isle of Wight as its own unitary council as it currently is.
This is based on the evidence they have gathered that this number of councils, delivering all services in the areas they cover, would give the best balance of local decision-making and sustainable size for the total population of over two million people.
It would avoid options for fewer unitary councils that would mean some of them serving well over one million residents.
The councils believe this proposal means the best of both worlds: councils that are big enough to deliver strategic services, but local enough to understand communities so they can tailor services more closely to their needs.
A key part of this work on the options will be understanding how residents, businesses and community groups feel about the changes and what area they think their future council should cover.
Today, an online survey has been launched on the Rushmoor Borough Council website for residents to have their say. This is the first of a series of activities to listen to local people and make sure everyone has the chance to give their views. The council will also be speaking directly to residents, community groups and businesses, over the coming weeks. This will include a series of public engagement events that the council will promote once the dates are confirmed.
The leader of Rushmoor Borough Council, Councillor Gareth Williams, said:
“We believe these changes will bring services closer to local people and give us more effective councils that respond to local needs. As a councillor, the largest number of complaints I receive are about roads, potholes or parking, but these are services delivered by Hampshire County Council, along with schools and social care.
"Local services need to be delivered locally – too big is too remote, but it can’t be too small as we need to deliver quality services which work well for people. We believe the best answer for Rushmoor residents is a northern Hampshire council for Rushmoor, Hart and Basingstoke and Deane but we would like to hear your views on this and what’s important to you.”
The council’s Cabinet will consider the local government reorganisation proposals at its meeting on 8 July. This will be followed by a debate at the full Council on 10 July.
Each council must decide what they will submit as their preferred option to the government in September.
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