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16 Sep 2014

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Austerity cuts, EDDC, Exeter City Council, Skypark

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Three Dorset councils in merger talks

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-29205950

Skypark starts to make sense but only in strategic terms, not in terms of residents needs.

What is quite shocking is that, if mergers save so much money, why was the extra tier created in the first place.

One suspects the word “localism” would have been bandied about in the 70s when it was happening, but now the buzz phrase = “economic growth and efficiency” to explain why mergers are needed.

One might then conclude that you can’t have localism AND economic growth and efficiency!

2 thoughts on “Three Dorset councils in merger talks”

  1. Actually, according to the BBC article they are not talking about a unitary authority, but shared services provided by a common workforce. Whilst I can see squabbles about resources and perhaps difficulties where the requirements of the 3 councils differ, which we wouldn’t see in a unitary authority, I would imagine that there would be efficiency savings to be had – though (being cynical) I would also imagine that these efficiency savings would be offset by the larger salaries demanded by the more senior officers.

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    • Surely what it amounts to is a unitary authority with masses of councillors and less staff!

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