Dacorum Borough Council Leader statement on local government reform

Like all councils in two-tier areas, we have now received our statutory invitation from the Government to submit proposals for the reorganisation of local government structures in Hertfordshire. The letter sets out the criteria to be considered and the timescale including initial plans to be submitted in March and full proposals later this year.

Our priority remains to ensure that any changes benefit Hertfordshire residents and businesses, and maintain our excellent local government services, whilst ensuring strong democratic accountability to our communities and neighbourhoods.

There are currently differing views on the best model for local government in Hertfordshire and we are committed to working together to determine how we can best achieve this goal.

All 11 councils in Hertfordshire, with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, are collaborating to develop a shared evidence-base to inform the options available to our county.

The Government’s invitation presents a significant demand on all councils in Hertfordshire and we will now carefully consider the request and jointly develop our response.

With resources already extremely stretched by the financial and staffing pressures on all councils in the county we are concerned about being able to balance the Government's requirements for local authorities to provide high quality services whilst also developing new models of governance.

This work is at an early stage and the views of residents, businesses, local government partners, our colleagues and other stakeholders across the public and private sectors will be essential as it develops. We commit to providing updates throughout.

Councillor Adrian England, Leader of Dacorum Borough Council said: "Devolution means pushing power and decision-making closer to people. That principle is 'the elephant in the room' as Hertfordshire is simply too big and 'many-centred' to be run by a single council."

“With a population of 1.2 million and rising, it would be much larger than any local authority in the UK, leading to distant decision-making and making services less responsive to the needs of our different communities, urban and rural, including those that are near to London and those that are far away from it. One giant council would remove the connection between residents and the services they so much rely on."