Latest news with #councilreform
ABC News
09-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Bunbury mayor backs amalgamations to reduce WA's 139 councils
The mayor of Western Australia's largest regional city says the state has too many local governments and is backing mergers as the way to reduce council numbers. With local government elections approaching and controversies engulfing the Nedlands, Coolgardie and Port Hedland councils, issues with the state's third tier of government have been in the spotlight in recent months. WA has 139 local governments, more than New South Wales (128) and Queensland (77), despite their larger populations. Bunbury Mayor Jaysen Miguel said it was an issue that required closer examination. "There are 139 local governments in WA. It's just too many," Mr Miguel told local podcast BLXCK INK. While emphasising the position was his view, not his council's, he said Bunbury's smaller neighbours, the shires of Capel, Dardanup and Harvey, should consider merging with Bunbury. All four councils have hiked rates in their latest budgets, with Bunbury, Dardanup and Harvey all raising their fees by more than 6 per cent. Mr Miguel said Bunbury ratepayers were copping a bad deal, as people from surrounding shires used their facilities. "We've got the sports centre, the entertainment centre, the art gallery, the museum … they're regional facilities, but our ratepayers, our 30,000 people, pick up the cost of that for 100,000 people," he said. While conceding there was no appetite for amalgamation, he told the ABC it was important to start conversations about the idea, before it was "inevitably forced upon local governments anyway". Dardanup Shire President Tyrrell Gardiner said local decision-making remained the best possible model. "Dardanup, Capel and Harvey are all experiencing rapid growth, and within a few years each will have populations comparable or exceeding Bunbury's," Cr Gardiner said. "Smaller communities like Burekup, Dardanup, Capel, Harvey and Brunswick will lose [their] voice in an amalgamated structure, where city politics often dominate conversations." He said further collaboration remained key to managing the region's growing population. "The mayor's focus on amalgamation appears more like an attempt to retain influence than a solution grounded in community benefit," Cr Gardiner said. As both a former Bunbury mayor and former local government minister, it is a familiar debate for John Castrilli, who oversaw the last round of attempted forced council mergers by then-premier Colin Barnett. While believing any amalgamation would eventually be led by the state government, he said councils should look at opportunities to unite and share resources. "If there's going to be any amalgamation at all, it'll be done by government, [who will] mandate it, full stop," he said. "How do we make things more efficient? How do we optimise opportunities? "If you had one council and 100,000 people [making it] straight away the greater Bunbury council, instead of the 27th largest council, it becomes the 19th largest council." Mr Castrilli also said previous studies he had facilitated between Subiaco and Nedlands councils in Perth showed amalgamation could lead to a reduction in rates. "That was just an administration [efficiency] that could save up to $4 million a year. Savings of a couple of hundred bucks a year to each individual household," he said. In 2008, the Shire of Douglas in Far North Queensland was forced by the Queensland government to amalgamate with Cairns City Council, as part of a statewide reorganisation that substantially reduced the number of councils in the state. The merger was widely unpopular with Douglas residents, who eventually voted to split from Cairns Regional Council in 2013. Former Douglas Mayor Julia Leu said the community's interests were often overlooked in the amalgamated Cairns Regional Council. "Rates went through the roof and services went down," Ms Leu said. She said any merger in the South West had to acknowledge the interests of the outlying towns. "[Mr Miguel] has to ensure the local characteristics of those other communities are respected in terms of any newly amalgamated council," Ms Leu said. "And if the other shires oppose amalgamation they just need to fight it." Local Government Minister Hannah Beazley said the Cook government wanted councils to work out potential mergers themselves. It is a position echoed by WA Local Government Association (WALGA) president Karen Chappel. "WALGA's position is that any structural reform of local government, including amalgamations, should only be undertaken on a voluntary basis, consistent with the state government's policy," she said. "Any forced amalgamation or boundary change is not necessarily an effective way to address individual challenges faced by local governments."
BBC News
09-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Lincolnshire councillors vote to abolish district councils
Lincolnshire's nine councils could be reduced to two or three after councillors voted on how the county's political map could be county council's preferred option is for a single unitary authority coving the whole of Lincolnshire, with district councils abolished. According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), North and North East Lincolnshire would be amalgamated into a second separate submitted their initial ideas earlier this year as part of plans to streamline local government and save money. Now, the government has tasked the authorities with choosing their final Liam Kelly described it as "the most sensible" option. "It delivers what voters want – efficiency, value for money and uninterrupted services," he Rob Gibson, the deputy leader who is responsible for the reorganisation process, said any split would "inevitably lead to a reduction in services".He said: "This decision is one of the most important we'll make in this council, and will affect every person in Lincolnshire."Our biggest concern is splitting up adult services, children's services and the fire and rescue service."A discounted option that was considered would have split Greater Lincolnshire into a northern and southern northern council would have been made up of North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire, East Lindsey and West the southern council would have included Lincoln, North Kesteven, South Kesteven, Boston and South will need to send their plans to the government by November before a decision is made, the LDRS is expected that the changes would then come into effect for Lincolnshire by 2027. Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Click here to download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and here to download the BBC News app from Google Play for Android devices.
BBC News
22-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Lancashire councils urged by government to work together
Lancashire's 15 main councils have been urged to work together in order to agree a vision for what will replace them when they are leaders had been given a March deadline to submit initial plans for how they will reorganise themselves into new authorities, but failed to reach an Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has written to council leaders and said "effective collaboration" would be "crucial" ahead of a November letter, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, went on to say that "we would encourage you to continue to build strong relationships and agree ways of working". The shake-up being demanded by the government, as part of a nationwide overhaul, would see Lancashire County Council and the 12 district authorities in Preston, South Ribble, Chorley, West Lancashire, Fylde, Wyre, Lancaster, Ribble Valley, Burnley, Hyndburn, Rossendale and Pendle – along with the standalone councils in Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen – all would be replaced by a handful of new unitary authorities covering much larger areas, which will each be responsible for delivering all council services in their new Reform UK leader of Lancashire County Council, Stephen Atkinson, wants to hold a referendum on the future of the county and is believed to favour the status quo of holding on to its 15 met with Local Government Minister Jim McMahon in London on Thursday for a private discussion. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
BBC News
11-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Gloucester City Council job listing criticised as 'manipulative'
The advertisement of a job for someone to "convince the public" of a new council system for Gloucestershire has been criticised as "manipulative".Gloucester City Council (GCC) is hiring a communications officer to help promote the idea of creating a "thriving Greater Gloucester", as three reorganisation options are considered for the county's council Chambers, leader of the Conservative group on GCC, has submitted a formal complaint for the advertisement to be Hilton, Liberal Democrat leader of the council, said the post would help inform residents and involve them in the reorganisation. What are the options? At the moment, Gloucestershire is a two tier authority, meaning council services are split between the county and districts, The Local Democracy Reporting Service option, preferred by Gloucestershire County Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council, is for the whole county to become a single unitary authority with a population of about 650, second option, put forward by five of the county's seven MPs, is to create two unitary councils, broadly divided between east and then there is a third option, being put forward by Mr Hilton, which has been described as the Gloucester involves creating a Greater Gloucester authority comprised of the city and surrounding villages in the "hole" of the doughnut. A second authority would then be created in the outer "ring" of the doughnut. The communications role at Gloucester City Council to promote the third option has a listed salary of between £32,115 and £35, Chambers said of the advertisement: "This isn't communication, it is manipulation."The use of the word 'convince' in the job description says it all. "This role isn't about informing and listening to residents' opinions, it's about spinning a narrative and selling a political agenda using public money."Labour group leader Terry Pullen said he was also astonished by the job listing."The salary for this brand new job will be £35,000 but we do not know how this is going to be paid for, other than coming from council taxpayers' money," he added. 'Gloucester deserves better' Mr Hilton said the role would inform, engage and involve residents in a conversation which would shape Gloucester's future."The Greater Gloucester proposal is one of several options being explored in a county-wide conversation around local government reorganisation."With all the discussions so far about local government reorganisation, not one proposal has involved asking the public what they think. "We believe Gloucester deserves better."The three options have been suggested in response to a call from Local Government Minister Jim McMahon in February 2025 for ideas on how a single tier council structure could be councils involved in local government reorganisation have until November to submit more detailed proposals.
Telegraph
12-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Rayner's ‘mega councils' to cost taxpayers billions in pension payouts
Angela Rayner's 'mega councils' plan could lead to billions of pounds in gold-plated pension payouts for town hall bosses, a Tory peer has warned. Labour wants to abolish more than 100 councils in the next four years to make local government more efficient. But it means thousands of council staff could be in line for six-figure pension payouts if they are made redundant or choose to retire early. If a council employee who is over 55 retires early, an automatic penalty of around 40pc of the pension built up so far is applied. If they are made redundant, the council must pay the full sum without any reductions for early payment. This is on top of any severance payment. Lord Fuller, a Conservative peer and former chairman of the District Councils Network, said the Government 'appeared to be sleepwalking' into a payout with 'multibillion-pound implications'. He told The Times: 'The total cost of a pension for a 55-year-old senior council officer who joined after school could realistically reach half a million pounds. It only takes 2,000 people out of 1.8 million local government workers to be in that category to reach £1bn. 'The Government has made these announcements without any consideration of these pension costs. In their haste to decimate what's left of the Conservatives in the shires, they could be writing themselves another billion-pound black hole to be filled by already hard-pressed council taxpayers.' England has 21 county councils and 164 district councils sitting below them. Responsibilities are shared between the two tiers of local government. However, ministers believe the structure is inefficient. Ms Rayner's plans involve merging county and district councils in some areas to create larger, single-tier unitary authorities. A report by accountancy firm PwC, commissioned by the County Councils Network, estimated that unitary authorities could save between £20m and £25m a year. While the report factored in one-off redundancy costs of hundreds of millions of pounds, it did not identify pension costs as an individual issue. There are no government-held estimates of the costs, however, minutes from the local government pensions committee showed that officials acknowledged 'the numbers were indeed substantial'. Cash-strapped local authorities have struggled to balance their budgets while keeping up with gold-plated pension contributions. Almost £1 in every £4 raised in council tax is currently spent on funding the schemes, analysis shows. A Telegraph investigation earlier this year found 7,609 ex-council workers enjoyed a pension of more than £50,000 a year. Of those, 203 receive more than £100,000 – almost three times the UK's national average wage. It comes as council tax was increased by an average of 5pc for the new financial year, with almost half of properties in England now facing bills of at least £2,000. A government spokesman told The Times: 'This is speculation and no decisions on proposals have been made. Our ambitious reorganisation plans will be locally led, putting more money in working people's pockets and saving significant taxpayers' money to be reinvested in public services.'
