Unitary Status

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Note to Local Governance Working Group of Town Plan

This note has been prepared by Malcolm Ballantine to assist the work of the Local Governance Working Group of the Halesworth Town Plan. Because of the importance of any changes in the structure of local government to the eventual delivery of the Town Plan we have looked in some detail at the likely outcomes of the Boundary Committee for England (BCE) consideration of local government review for Suffolk.

The 2006 White Paper ‘Strong and Prosperous Communities’ invited local authorities in ‘two tier’ areas to make proposals either for replacement of existing councils by ‘unitary authorities’ or for greater collaboration between councils. In Suffolk, the decision was made to put forward proposals for unitary authorities. The present position regarding the review is that initial proposals have been considered by BCE and that two alternatives are being taken forward. Comments on these proposals are being invited for submission to BCE by 14th May 2009. Both proposals involve the abolition of Suffolk County Council and the seven district councils in Suffolk. The two alternatives are then:

  1. A single unitary authority covering the whole of the present area of the county of Suffolk (the ‘One Suffolk’ option);
  2. A unitary authority for Ipswich and Felixstowe together with a second unitary authority for the remainder of Suffolk.

In addition to these two proposals, Suffolk Coastal District Council have put forward an additional option for three unitary authorities: covering (1) Ipswich, (2) West Suffolk and (3) East Suffolk. Opinion polls suggest that this would be the option most people in Suffolk would support.

A detailed proposal has been made by Suffolk County Council and Mid Suffolk District Council for the ‘One Suffolk’ Option. A proposal has been made by Ipswich Borough Council for an Ipswich Unitary Authority but this lacks detail for the remainder of Suffolk. We have been unable to discover any further detailed proposals, in particular giving information about responsiveness to local communities such as market towns.

At present there seems insufficient detail being presented to ensure that the interests of the Halesworth community are protected. Only in the ‘One Suffolk’ plan are there any details at all of how local community responsiveness would be managed. Here, it is proposed to create a ‘community board’ comprised of Halesworth with Southwold and Kessingland. It is difficult to see what these three communities have in common and, hence, how such a community board might operate. Indeed, in a more general sense the intended operation of community boards is not clear.

A single unitary authority for Suffolk would be unusually large, both in terms of land area and population. To put this in context, the population would be in the region of 700,000. The existing UAs in the East of England (which came into being in 1996) are Luton, Peterborough, Southend and Thurrock.  They have populations of 184,000, 163,000, 160,000, and 147,000 respectively.  The oldest established UAs in England are the London boroughs which are typically 200,000-250,000 in population. Suffolk, therefore, would be three to four times bigger than existing unitary authorities and by far the biggest in land area in England. Because of this, it is especially important that the means for ensuring local accountability should be clear. This is not true at present, as the ‘One Suffolk’ proposal admits, and the other proposals do not consider this issue at all.

Halesworth has a particular problem here. For reasons which are probably connected with its recent development, the town has not received the attention it should from the present county and district councils. It has been recognised for some time that throughout the country the present electoral boundaries do not represent adequately the communities that exist, especially in rural areas. Because of this, following the 2001 census, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) devised a new method to establish where people actually live. This resulted in new definitions of ‘settlements’ (ie towns and villages). These new definitions (known, rather obscurely, as ‘output areas’) are those which should be used for planning purposes. On the basis of the new definitions, Halesworth has a population of 5,454 and is the third largest settlement in Waveney, smaller only than Lowestoft and Beccles. Compared with the Suffolk Coastal District Council area, it is smaller only than Felixstowe and Woodbridge. The consideration given to this does not seem to be adequate, as has been witnessed recently in the proposed reorganisation of schools.

It is imperative that whatever the outcome of the Local Government review, Halesworth’s interests must be assured. The present proposals do not give us that assurance.

Malcolm Ballantine 8 May 2009

Further Reading

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