Proposal

The proposal the Government has decided to implement, is based on a submission made by Durham County Council for the existing county and district councils to be brought together to form one new unitary council for the County by April 2009.

Organisation

With a new unitary council, local decision-making and consultation would take place around 12 to 14 'natural communities' based on the County's main settlements and rural areas. The precise geography of the natural communities would be identified in consultation with local communities, town and parish councils, the voluntary and community sector and other stakeholders as the new council is established. Each of the natural communities would be represented and supported by an 'area action partnership', in turn supported by an area coordination team of council staff.

The core services of the current councils including the 'back office' functions would be merged, with management and administration functions streamlined. This would enable resources to be re-directed to frontline services, local area and neighbourhood budgets and strategic support to develop town and parish councils and the voluntary and community sector. Work to establish the new council would begin later this year and would involve teams from both the county and district councils. All key stakeholders including town and parish councils and the voluntary and community sector would be consulted in the process.

Democratic Representation

The council would initially have 126 frontline ward councillors and be led by a Cabinet of 10 councillors. A Government appointed body called the Electoral Commission would determine more permanent levels of representation in the County. Councillors will be elected in May 2008. In their first year, the councillors will run the existing county council, oversee the development and set-up of the new unitary council and then represent their constituents as fully-fledged unitary councillors when the new council is up and running from April 2009. Existing district councillors remain in office until then.

Costs and Savings

Having one council would enable council tax charges for principal council services to be reduced for the majority of households to the level of the current lowest district area. This could be done because one unitary council would achieve year-on-year savings of Ł21 million compared to the current eight council, two-tier structure.

To achieve this, one-off transition costs of Ł12.4 million would be required but would be met from initial cost savings and existing county and district council financial reserves.

Support for the Proposal

The unitary council proposal is supported by over 100 partner and stakeholder organisations, including local politicians (such as Hilary Armstrong, Roberta Blackman-Woods, Tony Blair, Kevan Jones and Stephen Hughes), public sector bodies (such as One NorthEast, NHS trusts, the Police Authority and the Fire and Rescue Authority), the business community (such as CBI North East, the North East Chamber of Commerce, the regional airports and many local businesses), town and parish councils and voluntary and community organisations.

The County Council's View

As a Council, we have welcomed the Government's decision to implement the single unitary council proposal. In its Local Government White Paper, the Government said that the status quo in two-tier areas is not an option, and as a result, local government in County Durham will need to change.

The County Council and six of the seven district councils made proposals for the future local government of the County to be on a unitary basis, in effect, voluntarily calling time on the current two-tier council structure.

Although the councils had differing views about how unitary local government should be introduced, we believe that our proposal for one new unitary council met the Government's criteria and timetable for change. It is affordable, has clear plans for improving strategic leadership and local focus and has the backing of a wide range of key individuals and organisations in the County and region.

What it Means for You

Submission Documents and Information

The proposal which was submitted to Government on 25 January 2007 is attached, along with subsequent information we provided in response to Government questions in February and March 2007.

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PDF Icon Durham County Council unitary local government submission, January 2007.pdf (180 pages, 3502kb)