A leading light in the proposal to create a unitary council for Cumbria has responded to a series of claims made by opponents to the bid for a unitary Cumbria.
At an Extraordinary General Meeting of South Lakeland District Council last night, the financial case for an alternative model based on four MPAs (Most Purpose Authorities) in Cumbria was made public. It claimed that running four MPAs would save between £26m and £31m a year compared with the current model of a county council and six district councils. This figure is higher than the £22.2m savings outlined in Cumbria County Council's proposal for a single unitary authority.
Councillor Jack Richardson, Chair of the Member White Paper Working Group, said:
"These savings claims are, frankly, ridiculous. The district councils have raided the piggy bank, made wild assumptions about service efficiencies and have clearly ignored all the guidelines laid out by the Government's White Paper on how this process should work. The government has been very clear that any unitary proposals must only include the savings generated as a result of merging the county and district councils. What the districts have done is included efficiencies they believe could be made independently from that - so they've plundered the budget in county council-only services such as children's services and adult social care.
"This means that, under the districts' plan, Cumbrians would see frontline services slashed. The most telling admission in their financial case is that it would cost an extra £4m to create four sets of directorates running childrens and adult services compared with the one we have at the moment. The districts' financial case is all about preserving jobs for bureaucrats at the expense of frontline services. Our financial case has been monitored and checked by the Audit Commission, theirs has been scribbled on the back of an envelope in full knowledge that it won't ever be checked because it can't happen."
The South Lakeland District Council EGM also heard claims that Cumbrians would be charged more council tax under a unitary authority than under the current system. Cllr Jack Richardson said:
"Let's deal with economic realities. Local authorities everywhere face huge financial pressures, but our proposals recommend a maximum council tax increase of 4% a year. We currently have six different rates of council tax around Cumbria, but we are proposing to create a flat rate across the county. That means the area that currently pays the highest rate, Barrow, would see no increase in council tax in the first year of a unitary Cumbria and a 2.6% increase in year two. It will be for the new council to determine council tax, but it's a simple fact that everyone will be better off under a unitary council than under the current system."
A Westminster adjournment debate was also held yesterday by Eric Martlew, MP for Carlisle. Claims were made that a unitary council would be based in Carlisle, far removed from the people of Cumbria, with not enough councillors to be truly representative. Cllr Richardson said:
"It will be for the new council to decide where to base its headquarters and absolutely no decisions have been made yet. The bid does indicate that back office support should be spread around different parts of the county to ensure that employment opportunities are aligned with Cumbria's regeneration priorities. We fully appreciate that bigger isn't always better - that's why our proposal is all about making the council more local and accountable than ever before. The proposed community boards will be representative, put accountable local members at their heart and are being developed in partnership, not competition, with parish and town councils. They will have real power and influence and the concept of community boards has been welcomed by communities, parish and town councils and even in some cases district councillors."
In the adjournment debate, Mr Martlew referred to a MORI poll conducted by the district councils' Better Governance for Cumbria Group, which asked 1009 residents in Cumbria what they thought of the unitary proposal. The MORI poll found that 72% of Cumbrians thought a single council would be too remote and 77% thought Cumbria County Council and the district councils should work better together rather than create a single council. Cllr Richardson said:
"After going to a great deal of expense - courtesy of Cumbrian taxpayers - all the districts have proved is that if you ask a loaded question, you get a loaded answer. We have conducted our own qualitative research through citizens' forums, where people sit down and talk through the issue sensibly. At the beginning of these sessions, around 40% of people thought there was a need to move from the two-tier system to a unitary one - that's broadly in line with what the MORI poll found. But once they have seen what a unitary council really means, the number of people supporting the unitary system doubled to around 80%. Once people have seen through the spin and misinformation perpetuated by people trying to protect their own fiefdoms, they can see that a unitary Cumbria is a good thing."
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