Councillors discuss new regional local authority

The possibility of a huge regional local authority involving four councils in Staffordshire and Shropshire has been raised by councillors.

Councillors at Staffordshire County Council discussed creating a new strategic authority, which would include Stoke-on-Trent, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin councils, at a meeting on Wednesday.

The proposed reorganisation was also mentioned at a Shropshire and Wrekin Fire Authority meeting in Shrewsbury.

Authority chairman David Minnery said the issue was under consideration in Staffordshire, adding: "We may well find ourselves redundant."

"Devolution is not going to happen this year or even the year after, but the government has made it clear that they want it working before the end of their term," Minnery told the meeting.

"There will be interesting discussions over the next four years and this is going to be the next critical challenge. It is something that we will need to address," he added.

In December, the government announced plans for a major redesign of local government with its white paper on devolution.

The proposed reorganisation would see more money and powers coming to areas with a mayor, and two-tier council systems being dismantled and replaced with a single layer of unitary authorities.

An earlier cabinet meeting in Staffordshire on Wednesday approved a report which is looking into the creation of a new council including Staffordshire County Council and Stoke-on-Trent.

Councillors considered a report stating that the government's white paper on devolution called for new strategic authorities to have a minimum population size of 1.5 million.

The report acknowledged that exceptions could be considered, but the 1.1 million combined population of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent "clearly falls short of this target size".

It added that Shropshire had not yet stated a preference regarding devolution and it was not clear if the area would submit a proposal by the deadline of 21 March.

However, the report said the Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin areas, which have a combined population of about 500,000, "aligns well to the government's 1.5 million population target size", when combined with Staffordshire and Stoke.

The report stated that Staffordshire remained "open to this option although we would look to test this with regard to the best interests of our residents and businesses".

Cabinet members at Staffordshire County Council also voted in favour of a interim reorganisation plan which would see their authority merge with all eight district and borough councils in the county.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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