LINCOLN, SLEAFORD & NORTH HYKEHAM LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
The Case for Unitary
Authorities in
Lincolnshire
Cllr John Marriott and Cllr Jim Charters
December 2012
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The Case for Unitary Authorities in Lincolnshire
Executive Summary
Introduction
The idea of a unitary authority, which undertakes the roles of County and District Councils first
emerged following the Report into Local Government by a committee led by Lord Redcliffe Maude in
1969. The report, which had originally been commissioned by the Labour Government, was left to
the Conservative Government which came to power in 1970 to implement. Whilst establishing the
blueprint for local government which largely exists to this day, the basic recommendations of
Redcliffe Maude were ignored and the Metropolitan Counties that were established were largely
abolished by the late 1980s.
The idea was further revisited by the Banham Commission of 1992 and again in 2007, when a
significant number of County Councils and their Districts were abolished in favour of Unitary
Authorities, most notably in areas such as, Wales and, in England, Cornwall, Wiltshire, Shropshire
and Northumberland, to name just four. In these areas Town and Parish Councils continued to
operate. In addition, cities such as Leicester, Durham and Nottingham became Unitary Authorities in
their own right. The majority of areas in England remain so called ‘Two Tier’ areas (‘three tier’ if you
also include their Town and Parish Councils).
The case for change
Local Government is under attack. The Leader of Birmingham Council was quoted recently as saying
that local government as we know it will disappear in the next few years unless it receives greater
investment. The Local Government Association (LGA) recently published a report which reckoned
that local authorities could be in the red to the tune of over £19 BILLION by 2020 unless something is
done. Many District Councils up and down the country are facing bankruptcy and are already
exploring ways of collaboration. Yet again central government has postponed the day of reckoning
for many authorities by offering another bribe in the form of another Council Tax Freeze Grant.
Recently, Lord Heseltine, in his review of the regions, has come out strongly in favour of unitary
authorities at the expense of District and County Councils. Unitary authorities appear to be better
equipped to weather the financial tsunami that is engulfing us. The current three tier system still
operating in many parts of this country is a system we can no longer afford.
A Model for Lincolnshire
We feel that our county would benefit from a change in structure. There are various permutations,
ranging from an option to turn the whole of Lincolnshire into one massive Unitary Authority, which
we would resist, to options which would envisage the creation of up to four Unitary Authorities as
well as a radical proposal to link the two Unitary Authorities south of the River Humber with the rest
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of Lincolnshire to create unitary governance from the Humber to the Wash. There will, of course, be
some initial costs, as it may be necessary to contemplate some redundancies. These could be
offset by the sale of certain assets. In any case, if examples elsewhere are anything to go by, the
monies released would more than compensate.
The next steps
A Motion to the Lincolnshire County Council supporting the ‘Unitary’ approach in December 2012
failed to gain support. However, that should not be the end of the story. Our citizens need to be
made aware that there could be a better way to run local government and central government
needs to take note of this fact if we are to avoid even more massive cuts in these difficult financial
time.
We would welcome your views on this matter. If you wish to contact us, please feel free to do so.
Here are some contact details:
Cllr John Marriott Tel: 01522 687965 email: [email protected]
David Harding- Price email: [email protected]
Cllr Jim Charters email: [email protected]
Cllr John Bishop email: [email protected]
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The Case for Unitary Authorities in Lincolnshire
Introduction
A Unitary Authority combines the functions of a County and District Council. The concept first
emerged in Lord Redcliffe Maude’s report into local government of 1969, which had been
commissioned by the Wilson Government and was largely abandoned in the subsequent
Conservative Government’s Local Government Act of 1972 (which, incidentally saw the creation of
bodies such as the Lincolnshire County Council and the abandonment of the old Rural District
Councils and the introduction of the District Councils we have today). It notably established
Metropolitan Counties such as West Yorkshire, West Midlands as major urban areas and Cleveland,
Humberside and Avon as new metropolitan counties with supposed common interests. In 1986,
Margaret Thatcher abolished the major urban area County Councils, making their constituent
districts unitary authorities, which remain today.
Since 1972 there have been two further reviews of local government. The first, in the early 1990’s,
conducted by a team led by Sir John Banham, led to the abolition of the “unloved” metropolitan
counties of Avon, Humberside and the formation of smaller unitary authorities. The second, in 2009,
saw the creation of unitary authorities to replace the county councils in Cornwall, Northumberland,
County Durham, Shropshire, Wiltshire, Bedfordshire and Cheshire. Also, several cities, notably
Leicester and Nottingham in the East Midlands, achieved unitary status.
The Case for Change
Local Government is under attack. The Leader of Birmingham Council was quoted recently as saying
that local government as we know it will disappear in the next few years unless it receives greater
investment. The Local Government Association (LGA) recently published a report which reckoned
that local authorities could be in the red to the tune of over £19 BILLION by 2020 unless something is
done. Many District Councils up and down the country are facing bankruptcy and are already
exploring ways of collaboration. Yet again central government has postponed the day of reckoning
for many authorities by offering another bribe in the form of another Council Tax Freeze Grant.
Recently, Lord Heseltine, in his review of the regions, has come out strongly in favour of unitary
authorities at the expense of District and County Councils. Larger Unitary authorities appear to be
better equipped to weather the financial tsunami that is about to engulf us. The current three tier
system still operating in many parts of this country is a system we can no longer afford.
Why change the system in Lincolnshire?
Is it really value for money to have eight Chief Executives and Chief Financial Directors (10 if we
include the two Lincolnshire unitary Councils) , for example, or to have one authority responsible for
Planning and another for Highways, or one authority responsible for Social Care and another for
social housing? Is it right to have well over half of our county councillors also sitting on District
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Councils, when conflicts of interest could easily occur? A switch to unitary authorities would in the
long run save a great deal of money and alleviate much of the confusion in the public’s mind as to
which council does what. Even the Lincolnshire County Council Leader, Cllr Martin Hill, seemed to be
in favour of a change, or at least he was at Christmas 2011 when he advocated turning the present
Lincolnshire County Council into a single massive unitary authority – an idea he rapidly withdrew
because of the flak, one presumes, he got from the mainly Tory District Council leaders.
What about the Town and Parish Councils?
They would remain and their role could be enhanced. Towns such as Grantham and Spalding could
join the other major towns in Lincolnshire with having a democratically elected Town Council as well.
With the Power of Competence bestowed on them they could take over more responsibility from
any unitary authority. Town/cities like Lincoln and Boston could retain many of their current
responsibilities through the same process.
Previous attempts to introduce Unitary Authorities in
Lincolnshire
Some of us have vivid memories of what happened in 1992 when the County and District Councils
responded to the Banham Commission’s request for bids. All seven Districts and the County decided
to put in an individual bid for unitary status. All bids were rejected, the Districts being considered
too small to run a proper unitary authority and the County being considered too large.
However, John Marriott remembers talking to the Labour Deputy Leader of the Lincoln City Council
at the time, who told him that both Lincoln and NKDC were asked by the Banham Commission to
consider a ‘fall back’ position, which could have meant these two areas combining to form a unitary
authority. Unfortunately agreement could not be reached with the Conservative Leader of NKDC and
so the idea never really got off the ground.
In the review at the end of the last decade, the view was expressed, amongst others by Steve Leach,
Emeritus Professor of Local Government at De Montfort University, who was commissioned by the
county and districts to investigate the political structure in the County, that the three tier system
was the way we did things in Lincolnshire.
UA models for Lincolnshire
The following section simply gives examples of how Lincolnshire could be divided up into Unitary
Authorities. It is in no way proscriptive and, in any case, if we were to go down this route, it would
not be up to political parties or groups to draw up the boundaries.
Let us say first of all that we would not favour a single unitary authority for the whole of
Lincolnshire, which is what the Leader of the County Council seemed to be proposing before
Christmas 2011. The County is just too large for this to work effectively.
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You could make a strong argument for two or even three unitaries, which is somewhat ironic as this
is what we basically had before the Local Government Act of 1972 (admittedly with RDCs as well).
One arrangement (Option 1 in Appendix 3) would be to combine West Lindsey, Lincoln City, North
Kesteven and South Kesteven into one authority (we just about have this now with the new Central
Lincolnshire Planning Committee) and to form a second authority from East Lindsey, Boston Borough
and South Holland. An interesting variation might be to allow ‘East Lincolnshire’ access to the A1
corridor by linking the area around Stamford to South Holland and allowing Grantham and Bourne
together with their surrounding areas to remain in ‘West Lincolnshire’ (See Appendix for
approximate population figures). These areas are also currently working more closely together in
planning terms. It would, of course, entail messing about with South Kesteven’s borders.
No combination is without its problems. For example, there is a strong affinity in parts of South
Holland with Norfolk, as similar affinities in South Kesteven with Cambridgeshire and in West Lindsey
with North Lincs UA and South Yorkshire. However, broadly speaking, the arrangements proposed
here could work, albeit with the population of West Lincolnshire UA much larger than that of East
Lincolnshire UA. As far as the number of councillors is concerned, around 90 for West and somewhat
less for East would make sense.
There is one difficulty. What should we do with Lincoln City, which is so much bigger in population
than all the other towns in the county and has traditionally had control over much of its affairs.
Perhaps a watered down District Council status ( by using powers of competence) could be retained,
giving Lincoln stronger powers than, say, towns such as Horncastle, Gainsborough, Skegness etc.,
whilst Boston may also be able to enjoy an enhanced status on the lines of Lincoln.
Other Alternatives
The arguments for unitary administration therefore revolve around the number and size (area and
population) of each unitary Council. The accepted population size for a unitary Council to provide full
and effective services is around 250,000. However, smaller unitaries can work.
The ’two unitary Council’ arrangement of combining West Lindsey, Lincoln City, North Kesteven
and South Kesteven into one authority and forming a second authority from East Lindsey, Boston
Borough and South Holland has problems, namely the large population discrepancy for each unitary
( especially if you put South Kesteven entirely in the West) and the massive distances from north to
south. To alleviate the population problem, it may be possible to split South Kesteven between the
east and western unitaries or by permitting East Lincolnshire access to the A1 corridor by linking the
area around Stamford to South Holland and allowing Grantham and Bourne together with their
surrounding areas to remain in ‘West Lincolnshire’ (See Appendix for approximate population
figures).
An alternative approach is to have three unitary Councils within Lincolnshire County Council area
(Map 3 ) by combining South Kesteven with South Holland; an amalgamation between East Lindsey
and Boston Borough and finally a West Lincolnshire with North Kesteven, Lincoln City and West
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Lindsay. The Western element is slightly overpopulated and the East slightly underpopulated.
However a distinct advantage over the 2 unitary Council model is the smaller areas to manage.
The above two alternatives have been suggested by using existing district boundaries
A more radical Alternative
This is to include the existing Unitary Councils of North and North East Lincolnshire in a complete
revision of boundaries to result in 4 unitary Councils for the whole of Lincolnshire (Map 4). An extra
two tiers could be abolished and huge cost savings achieved through the abolition of Humberside
police, Fire and other Humberside residual agencies. Lincolnshire would be “whole” again. There
would be a huge problem in re-drawing the East Midlands regional boundary and ensuring
engagement with the existing unitary authorities but the advantages are self evident with the
smallest number of unitary authorities, the biggest savings and the compactness and similar
population sizes of all prospective Councils.
Other Alternatives
During our consultations, one option that has been put forward is that we take the ‘Humber to
Wash’ proposal, as above, but draw the lines differently (Map 5), namely by combining the current
North Lincs UA with West Lindsey as one unitary authority, NE Lincs with East Lindsey to form a
second, Lincoln City and NKDC to form a third and SKDC, Boston and South Holland to form a fourth.
The only problem we see here is that the population of the Lincoln/NKDC authority at around
190,000, would be considerably smaller than the other three.
There will, of course, be some initial costs, as it may be necessary to contemplate some
redundancies. These could be offset by the sale of certain assets. In any case, if examples
elsewhere are anything to go by, the monies released would more than compensate.
The next steps
The following Motion was put to the Lincolnshire County Council at its meeting on Friday, 14
December by the Liberal Democrat Group by Group Leader Cllr John Marriott and his Deputy, Cllr
Reg Shore:
“In view of the LGA forecast of a shortfall of over £19 billion for local authorities by the
end of this decade, and the fact that rural counties that have recently introduced unitary
authorities have all reported large savings over the last three years (in one case of over
£85 million), the County Council commits itself to a comprehensive review of the council
structure in Lincolnshire, with particular reference to the possible abolition of both County
and District Councils and the introduction of unitary authorities, either based on the
current political boundaries within Lincolnshire or, in consultation with our northern
neighbours, on the establishment of unitary governance from the Humber to the Wash.”
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Unfortunately the other political parties chose not to support our motion, with the
Conservatives and two Independents abstaining and the Labour Group and the Leader of
the Independent Group voting against. The campaign for Unitary Authorities for Lincolnshire
will form a major component of the Lincolnshire Liberal Democrats’ campaign in the County
Council elections in May 2013. Change, in our opinion, cannot be avoided.
Appendix 1
Approximate population sizes of current Local Authorities in Lincolnshire
District Councils
West Lindsey
89,200
Lincoln City
93,500
North Kesteven
107,800
South Kesteven
131,000
East Lindsey
136,400
Boston Borough
64,600
South Holland
88,300
Total
710,800 (the approximate size of an ‘All Lincolnshire’ Unitary Authority)
Unitary Authorities
North Lincolnshire
167,400
N E Lincolnshire
159,600
Total
327,000
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Appendix 2
New Unitary Councils since 2009
Case Study 1 - Central Bedfordshire Unitary Council (pop. 254,400) 59 councillors
Prior to reorganisation, Bedfordshire comprised 3 District Councils and 1 County Council. Out of
these was created 2 unitary authorities, Central Bedfordshire Council and Bedford Borough Council
(pop. 157,840). It has 59 members. In its first three years of operation, the former has reduced its
spending by more than £40m.
Case Study 2 - Cornwall Unitary Council (pop. 535,399) 123 councillors
Before reorganisation, Cornwall had 6 District and I County Council. The combined number of
members went down from 300+ to 123, which, in the opinion of local Lib Dems, is still too many. The
County Council was in favour and all the districts were opposed. As a result, the change to unitary is
thought to have saved many services. Overall around £140m of cuts needed to be made in four
years. Instead, only £70 to £80m were made in the first year, of which only £10 were to front line
services. One estimate is that 50% of the rest of the savings are also due to the unitary dividend.
Total savings of around £25m per year are reckoned to have been achieved
Case Study 3 - Wiltshire Unitary Council (pop. 461,480) 98 councillors
Before reorganisation, Wiltshire had one County Council and 5 District Councils. It was decided to
create one unitary authority, although local Lib Dems would have preferred two unitary authorities.
It has 98 members. It is estimated that, in the first year, around £14m was saved and many vital
services were preserved.
Case Study 4 - Shropshire Council (pop. 306,100) 74 councillors
Before reorganisation Shropshire had a County Council and 5 District Councils. It now has 74
councillors and a Town Council was created in Shrewsbury with some assets transferred over. No
figures available on savings, despite requests.
Case Study 5 - Northumberland County Council (pop. 310,600) 67 councillors
The last County Council elections were held in 2008 and, the following year, the six District Councils
were simply abolished. The new unitary authority has 67 members and is the only one of the five
where the Lib Dems are the largest group. Savings of £85,655,000 have been reported over a three
year period!
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Appendix 3
Possible permutations for UAs in Lincolnshire (there are many more)
The present set up in Lincolnshire and former Humberside
Option 1 Note the difference in population size, which could
be significant.
Option 2 Based on current boundaries
Option 3 Not based on present political boundaries and
Including areas currently not in Lincolnshire
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Option 4 A more radical approach, allowing for the projected population expansion in the Greater Lincoln area.
The present arrangement in the UK.
The areas marked in green are currently Unitary Authorities
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