Nottinghamshire super council move branded improper, ill-timed and disgusting by David Lloyd, leader of Newark and Sherwood District Council

Plans for a Nottinghamshire super council have been branded improper, ill-timed and disgusting by a council leader.

County council leader Kay Cutts wants to scrap all seven districts and borough councils, and the county council itself, to form one unitary authority. She claims it will bring savings of up to £30m.

But David Lloyd, Conservative group leader on Newark Town Council, told a town council meeting: “I’m up for local government reorganisation ­— reorganising it to get rid of the county council.”

Mr Lloyd, also leader of Newark and Sherwood District Council, said such a unitary authority would pit the towns and villages against each other and achieve nothing.

“It’s crass, nonsensical, not been thought through, expensive, ill-timed, irrespective of the views of the public, and it is being spoken about by a council that probably delivers the poorest services in the entirety of this county,” Mr Lloyd said.

Mr Lloyd accused the county council of going over the heads of its districts and boroughs to submit proposals to government.

He said: “Why not ask the secretary of state to ask for proposals from all councils in the area? It’s nakedly obvious what they are doing and there’s a level of haste that I find at best suspicious.

“If you listen to all rhetoric from Mrs Cutts, she needs to realise that when you unitarise the county council goes as well and a new council is formed.

“You won’t hear that said. Everything is purposed as if that authority effectively takes over.

“If we look at all local surveys on what people think are worst, potholes and pavements came out pretty near the top. The public need reminding ­— that’s the county council.

“Perhaps the public need reminding how the county council until very recently put no money whatsoever into the southern link road.

"Perhaps they need reminding on how they deserted the depots and refuse to sell them, that they’ve left municipal buildings empty and made it other people’s problems.

“That they moved jobs to Ollerton out of Newark and didn’t reinvest in this area. Just potentially the people of Newark want to be reminded of that organisation that proposes to take over.

“The sole imperative here is the county council trying to put a massive bandage over their budgetary problems by seizing all the assets and investments of all the other councils.

“It’s improper, it’s naked and it’s disgusting.”

Mr Lloyd also attacked the county council’s public consultation exercise.

“Well they’re quite patently not listening, I’m not even sure they’re hearing and, looking at their consultation, they are not engaging either,” he said.

“Now what worries me, with a town council hat on, is that their attempt to sort of push back on the ‘what about localism’, is to say in somehow they will empower parish councils and pay us to cut grass and hedgerows.

“Well thank you for the feudal description of what us serfs do at a local level, but they are not fully understanding how parishes work.

“Here we have the leader of the county council telling us we should have a single unitary for Nottinghamshire, over 880,000 people. That’s bigger than Cyprus. It’s an utter nonsense that will reflect no localities.”

In response, Mrs Cutts said: “David Lloyd must not hide behind his town council role.

"He is also leader of Newark and Sherwood District Council and in this position was one of the signatories on a letter to the Minister of State Luke Hall which clearly stated they wished to seek 'support to invite us to develop alternative proposals to a single, County-wide unitary Council over the forthcoming year'.

“My sole aim in moving to a unitary authority is to give the residents of Nottinghamshire a better deal, to make it simpler and less confusing and to ultimately save taxpayers money.

"We can’t go on with the current level of waste and inefficiency.

“Councils must find ways of spending less without reducing services.

"It is even more important that we do it now because covid-19 has made the financial circumstances of councils in Nottinghamshire worse.

“Jobs will be lost, and families’ incomes will be hit as a result of the pandemic, that’s why we must make sure we look to saving taxpayers money going forward.

“It’s imperative we find ways of making our money go further, so reducing duplication and waste through unitary local government just makes sense for Nottinghamshire residents and businesses.”

Mrs Cutts pointed out the most recent recorded population figure for Cyprus was 1,207,359, significantly higher than the 787,610 population of Nottinghamshire. (Source: Office for National Statistics)

She added: “All the information on local government reorganisation can be found on our website Your Nottinghamshire Your Future.

"I would urge people to visit the site and take part in the public engagement survey which seeks to gain the views of people from across the county and how they think local council services could best work for them, their families and their communities in the future.”

Lord Bob Kerslake, former head of the home civil service, who is chairing the UK2070 Commission on how to close the north-south divide, was quoted in a national newspaper yesterday as saying he had been told the White Paper on devolution and local recovery, which was expected this month, had been shelved until next year as the government prioritises battling covid-19.