[Politics] mega councils '26 no thread ?

[wardy wonder land]

No thread on the mega council plans for 2026 ?

East Sussex and West Sussex are part of the plan

Voted Lord Mayors of Lewes and Chichester ? what happens to Mid-sussex and B&H ?

Rumour has it that the B&H council want to drop the H to save on printing....

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Absolutely against this idea. The government claim it's "devolution" yet for the residents of B&H it takes representation further away from the voters. Approx 300k voices will be drowned out by another 1.4m voices. What Crawley needs ( assuming they stay in Sussex ) is entirely different to what Bognor needs or Rye or Chichester to B&H. It's removing democracy not expanding it. Strangely B&H Labour never mentioned this idea when begging for votes last May !

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

I've heard something about this. What are the proposals?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

This thread is useless without a hyperlink (to the Mail online).

 

[Soton Seagull]

Crawley are rumoured to have applied to become part of Surrey. I'll start the car and drive them their myself!

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I've heard something about this. What are the proposals?

Merging East Sussex CC, West Sussex CC and B&H Council to cover the whole of Sussex. Also to have a Mayor of Sussex with most the political power over the whole county.

 

[Curious Orange]

I've heard something about this. What are the proposals?

Something about half a million people per council - Surrey are in on it which as far as I can tell means Guildford Borough Council will get abolished, I'll be mightily miffed if this means we get rolled into Woking and have to pick up their debt!

Surrey County Council elections delayed due to council shake-up

There will not be elections in Surrey in May, because of a reorganisation of local government.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[AK74]

I've heard something about this. What are the proposals?

Is this what all the fuss is about?

Government chooses six areas for fast-track devolution, agrees to postpone elections to nine authorities

www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

 

[A1X]

[Sussex] - One Sussex - time to unify?

From the Sussex Facebook page: Modern local government areas such as ‘East Sussex’ and ‘West Sussex’ are both artificial inventions, which were manufactured in Whitehall (via the Local Government Act of 1972), can equally, also be scrapped at the will of any incumbent new parliament. Therefore...

www.northstandchat.com

 

[beorhthelm]

having both district and county councils, with mixed and overlapping services provided, always seems inefficient to me. they'll probably make a pigs ear of it, but see little reason to object to principle of consolidating local governance.

 

[wardy wonder land]

This thread is useless without a hyperlink (to the Mail online).

Council shake-up sees elections delayed in nine areas

Angela Rayner says the reorganisation marks a generational power shift but the Tories say it is a "worrying day".

www.bbc.co.uk

Marvel Comics' Union Jack Vs... Viz Comics' The Male Online?

Cavan Scott and Kev Walker are writing and drawing the British Blood Hunt tie-in Union Jack The Ripper for Marvel Comics.

bleedingcool.com

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Initial thoughts.

I don't really see an issue merging east and west apart from the fact that it's a large area, probably 80 miles across and a lot of people, so that it's quite unwieldy

Having a mayor, must to a degree make having councillors pretty pointless. Also having a mayor works well I think when you've got a self contained metropolitan area. When it's a sprawling county, less so. And the city of Brighton and Hove is massively different to say a village in mid Sussex. It's probably not easy to find policy objectives which are popular in both.

Oh and we're bound to end up with a tory

 

[Hotchilidog]

Not in favour. Clearly this will dilute the influence that B&H residents have over our governance, and yes it will probably be a Tory mayor, no wonder B&H Labour are in favour, just cut out the middleman.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

So is this a proposal or is this a final decision which has been taken?

 

[Chicken Run]

Merging East Sussex CC, West Sussex CC and B&H Council to cover the whole of Sussex. Also to have a Mayor of Sussex with most the political power over the whole county.

I hope she/he/they speak better English than the current B & H one

 

[Curious Orange]

So is this a proposal or is this a final decision which has been taken?

Proposal, but feels like a fait accompli given that there will be no elections in May.

 

[keaton]

Merging East Sussex CC, West Sussex CC and B&H Council to cover the whole of Sussex. Also to have a Mayor of Sussex with most the political power over the whole county.

Not quite.They'll be
a mayor and some joint decision making stuff like transport, environment etc. the three county councils will remain and carry on the rest of the duties.

There's also a separate plan to get rid of the district and town councils in East (and presumably West) Sussex

 

[Gabbiano]

Frankly if they're going to restructure local government like this there are much more functional arrangements that could be found based on the real economic and transport connections between towns, rather than just following historic counties.

The Sussex coast conurbation, approx. Littlehampton/Bognor to Newhaven is very functionally interlinked.

Chichester probably relates more to Portsmouth.

Then you have the Gatwick Diamond - Crawley, Horsham, Reigate, Redhill, East Grinstead, Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath (although arguable that the last two relate more to Brighton).

 

[5Ways Gull]

I think in light of the MAGA nonsense across the pond, having "Make England Great Again" councils is a stupid idea.

 

[Stato]

As I understood it, ESCC & WSCC merge with their respective district/borough/town councils to become unitary authorities. B&HCC is already a unitary. Then the three run themselves, but under the leadership of a Strategic Authority and an elected mayor. Central government wants this to happen, so are giving financial incentives to the local councils that act quickest. After so many years of taking the brunt of the previous governments' austerity cuts, all of the nation's LA's face severe to impossible financial challenges, so would be open to any proposal that might ease these. The new strategic authority will have wider powers and wider responsibilities, so a cynic may suggest that this could give central governments even more opportunity to restrict local government funding and pass on the blame for the resulting cuts.