Colchester politicians debate becoming a unitary authority

Under our two-tier local government system (county council and borough/ district councils), Colchester is responsible for much of the day-to-day services including housing, local planning, refuse collection but not disposal, and street cleaning while the county council handles the rest.

The Gazette asked four senior councillors their views on the topic and this is what they had to say...

Paul Smith, leader of Colchester Council

Paul Smith argues given the extent to which the boundaries of Essex have changed (at one point it included Ilford) as well as economic differences, Essex as a county no longer works.

Separating from Essex County Council, would clarify to residents who is accountable and place more importance on local knowledge. But there are some things he would opt to keep joint such as the library service.

He said: "Clearly there would need to be some sort of agreement between the councils but we’ve seen recently Suffolk County Council proposed a unitary authority covering all of Suffolk.

"You’ve got ministers suggesting Northamptonshire gets split into two - well, Essex is actually bigger than both of those.

"There seems to be a lot of movement from central Government towards clarifying responsibilities and the two-tier system hasn’t worked well.

"It certainly hasn’t worked well for Colchester because we’ve seen an awful lot of resources dragged to Chelmsford to be spent there.

"Of course there are challenges, we know elderly care is very expensive and it’s a growing problem but it’s something which could be tackled better locally.

"If we worked closer with the hospital to ensure we could get people out and into respite care or a convalescent home, we could then provide better support to them in their houses.

"This would free up beds which is great as we’re saving the hospital money and then we could come to a discussion about how it’s cheaper for the services we provide.

Ambulances queue outside Colchester General Hospital

"An example, if someone has a fall at home and the ambulance service attends it costs somewhere in the region of £150. If our Careline team attend, it costs nearer £30.

"We’re saving the county money because we’re keeping that person out of hospital or a care home, but at the moment we don’t get the benefit of that.”

Tim Young, deputy leader of CBC

Tim Young thinks the county is too diverse, county council HQ in Chelmsford is too remote and too large an organisation to meet such varying needs.

He says the borough council had previously asked for the control of highways back but county hall bosses were unwilling to free up funds.

He said: "If you were starting from scratch designing a system of local government, you wouldn’t have a two-tier system, you would have one unitary authority delivering services to the local area.

"With Essex being such a large and diverse county, I think it’s too big to cater to the needs of its different parts so we want controls and powers centred in Colchester.

"How big a unitary authority is a question. Whether Colchester is big enough on its own as a borough or whether we would have to take in Tendring and or Braintree would be a question mark, but we certainly don’t want to carry on in the unsatisfactory position we’re in.

"The more resources we can have to be spent on local services, the better, because we’re getting a pretty raw deal at the moment. The state of our roads compared to others in the county, it cries out that Colchester isn’t getting the resources it needs.

"And then the buck would stop with us. We couldn’t blame the county council and they couldn’t point the finger at us which would be better for democracy, better for residents and easier to understand.

"Southend has proved being cut loose from the county council, far from being detrimental, can be a real boost to the area. The sooner it happens, the better!"

Kevin Bentley, deputy leader of Essex County Council

Kevin Bentley is in favour of county-wide services which can be adjusted as necessary.

He said: “I don’t believe Colchester is large enough to be one unitary authority - it’s about economy of scale and having the resources and people to deliver major Government initiatives such as business rate retention and a complex social care agenda, especially on health and social care integration.

“One of the largest areas of taxpayer spend is on social care and quite rightly. A society is judged by how it cares for people.

“However, in order to ensure people receive the very best of care at all ages it’s far better done managing a cross county service delivered and tailored locally to individuals.

Maverick Eaton, then one, picture in Greenstead Community Centre

“If this were handled only by Colchester then it simply wouldn’t have enough tax money to deliver this important service let alone highways, education, major infrastructure projects and have the capacity at the same time to drive economic growth.

“For instance, Essex County Council’s children’s service is seen and judged as one of the best in the country simply because we have a central policy delivered locally with a dedicated and expert team.

“The basic fact is if Colchester Borough Council was one unitary it would mean two simple choices: either to dramatically raise your council taxes or go bust!”

John Jowers, former borough council leader

John Jowers, says while there would be sizeable economic savings, he also agrees the town is not big enough for the task.

As a Mersea and Pyefleet ward councillor, he is much more interested in devolving powers to parish and town councils.

He said: “You have to be dispassionate, take the politics out of it and look at the practicalities.

“Yes there’s a plus because it takes the identity of Colchester away from the county structure, but I’m not so sure that’s a great benefit. You need to look at the borough council’s economic and social performance and make a value judgement.

“How well does Colchester Borough Council perform compared to Essex County Council in areas such as adult social care and schools? I wouldn’t say we’re doing brilliantly well. We do as well as we can.

Picture: Steve Brading

“I believe in a three-tier structure and CBC should devolve more powers to parish councils. Prior to 1974 and Redcliffe-Maud we had urban district councils which ran everything on their own and then it was all handed to the borough.

“You ask the parish councils how wonderful they think CBC is…It’s a point not often mentioned.

“I’d like to hand some functions back because people on the ground, certainly in places like West Mersea, Wivenhoe and Tiptree, they would have the capacity to do small highway repairs etcetera, but there’s an awful lot of scope in rearranging where devolution fits best.

“The big issues like schools, major highways and infrastructure, small unitaries aren’t the best solution for that.

“And it plays to popularisation a bit – we are Colchester, we stand against the rest of the world but actually does it work very well?”

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