Cumbria County Council has called for the people of Cumbria to be able to see what an alternative unitary model would cost them.
It is now nearly two months since Carlisle City Council, Allerdale Borough Council, Copeland Borough Council, South Lakeland District Council and Barrow Borough Council proposed plans to create four new unitary authorities in Cumbria - but there have been no financial details on how much it would cost to run the new system.
The county council has already requested to see any financial information from the district councils' working group in previous correspondence - but none has been forthcoming. The county council has also asked why the district councils are spending public money on drawing up an alternative model when they have already missed the 25 January deadline for submissions to the Department for Communities and Local Government by over three months.
"The time has now come to see whether the districts can back up their theory with facts. It's still unclear exactly why this work is being carried out when the deadline for submissions has already been missed. But if they're spending public money on this alternative model, then the public has a right to know what the alternative model will cost the tax payer," said Cumbria County Council's leader Tim Stoddard.
"I strongly suspect that the reason we haven't seen any figures is that their sums simply don't add up. Four councils are clearly more expensive to run than one. The more we spend on running these organisations, the less we spend on frontline services for the people of Cumbria," he added.
The Department for Communities and Local Government has already rejected 10 bids by district councils in other areas of England for failing to comply with the essential criteria laid out in the Local Government White Paper. District councils clearly performed less well in the area of affordability than county councils - 8 out 10 county councils (including Cumbria) scored top marks on affordability while only 2 out of 16 district proposals achieved this.
"Unfortunately the people of Cumbria have so far been denied the opportunity to see how the districts' case stacks up - because they failed to submit a bid to the Government in time. Even if or when the districts do come up with any figures, there will be no way of verifying them because the Audit Commission is only looking at the 16 proposals on the table. One positive aspect of the work carried out by the district councils is that it recognises that the two-tier status quo is not a sustainable option for Cumbria. The issue then is what is the most efficient, low-cost unitary option that delivers better services and brings local government closer to the people it serves," said Cllr Stoddard.
Cumbria County Council's proposal, 'One council, One vision, One voice' is currently being consulted upon by the Department for Communities and Local Government. This consultation involves a full examination of the financial case in the bid document by the Audit Commission.
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