Residents may have seen a lot of speculation about the upcoming Worcestershire County Council elections (due to be held on May 1st) and discussion about the potential abolition of our local District Council network as a result of Labour's plans to restructure local government.
Sadly, not all the reports and social media commetary is accurate.
To be clear: This new Labour Government, specifically Angela Rayner, have signalled an end to two tier local government ie where District and County Councils exist (locally in my constituency that is Wychavon District Council and Worcestershire County Council) and instead are forcing local government to change to a so called one tier or unitary system.
They have put certain conditions on this, including a minimum scale of a population of half a million.
So this practically, locally is likely to lead to the dissolution of the 6 District Councils in Worcestershire and the County Council and recreating one unitary council across the whole of Worcestershire instead.
While I recognise there are valid arguments both in favour and against both the two tier and Unitary systems, let's be clear this decision to get rid of two tier is a Labour government decision being imposed on local government - in an incredibly tight timescale.
Keeping the current system is not an option. Local council leaders have therefore pragmatically responded to the Government's proposals, keeping the best interests of local residents top of mind - including the cost of holding local elections in May.
In response to the Government's policy, the leader of Worcestershire County Council has made the statement in the link below.
The Government will confirm which councils will be moving forward to the new Unitary model by the end of February. We will then know for certain whether or not our County Council elections will take place this year or not.
In the meantime there is a possibility that local elections will still take place in Worcestershire and I can assure you that your local Conservatives are out campaigning and we want to get as many votes as possible for our hard working candidates. Many of them are sitting councillors who have served their communities for years and many others are new candidates but well-known leaders in their local communities. We generally have a good reputation across both District and County Councils for delivering good value for money for local residents here in Worcestershire and if you stick with the Conservatives we will continue to deliver more and better services for less money when compared to councils run by other parties.
But I find some of the fake outrage being expressed online by some of our political opponents astounding. I repeat, this is Labour government imposed policy so it is a bit rich and hypocritical of Labour councillors and candidates to say they oppose it. It is their Labour government's policy!
If they don't like it I suggest they protest to Angela Rayner and the Labour government - the very people they were asking for us to vote for a few months ago!
During the general election I repeatedly warned that Labour don't care about rural areas, that they don't understand our issues and concerns, and that they would impose decisions on the rural counties from Whitehall. First on planning and now on local government structure, this is exactly what they have done.
Respectfully, I would encourage other political parties and groups who are now expressing anger about local elections and restructuring to direct their outrage to the Labour government, too.
We Conservatives take our responsibilities of holding this Labour government to account seriously and we always want to do best by local residents in the parishes, towns, districts and counties where we have councillor representation or are in control. We will continue to do so.
