A UNITARY COUNCIL?

The current bid for a Unitary Council in Lancaster District is the issue I have been asked about the most at recent Parish Council meetings.

Local residents perceive Lancaster City to be ‘the Council'. A Mori survey in 2003 found that 73% of District residents named Lancaster City as the Council which provides local services in their area. Only 23% mentioned the County Council. The advice the City has received is that people expect the City Council to be able to resolve all their council-related problems. Unitary government would allow the new authority to deliver on this expectation.

Some have expressed concern at the costs of any change, but the bid document is firm on this. It states that maintaining services at present levels would result in substantial annual on-going savings of approximately £2.4 million, equivalent to a £56 reduction in Band D council tax and that “clear benefits afforded by the creation of a unitary Lancaster City Council will not result in additional cost for council taxpayers”.

The bid has the unanimous support of all the groups on the City Council, and in March, we expect to learn whether Lancaster's bid has been shortlisted by central government for further consultation. With Labour in control of the City Council's Cabinet, in control of the County Council, and in control of central government, it is clear where responsibility will lie if the bid does not succeed.

Lancaster City Council Conservative Group is keen to see, in the interests of all Lancashire residents, an improvement to the working of the current two-tier local government structure in Lancashire, regardless of whether the Lancaster bid for unitary status is successful, and is in continuing discussion with Conservatives elsewhere in the County with that objective in mind.

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