Council Reform is coming – and we want YOUR ideas
JULIA HILTON – Leader of Hastings Borough Council
We’ve just seen some very sobering local election results. Kent County Council is now run by Reform, as are nine others, and Greater Lincolnshire has its first Reform mayor.
Cllr Julia Hilton
It is clear people do not feel the two major parties are listening to them, so at this time of huge change for local government in East Sussex, we must listen carefully to what citizens want from their local councils.
Options for Change
In May and June, a major publicity campaign will inform Hastings of the proposed changes to the way local councils work. Our survey will ask your views on three options:
- a single unitary authority across East Sussex (which most closely aligns with the government’s preferred population criterion of around 500,000 per authority);
- a coastal/rural split into two smaller authorities;
- an option which removes the county council and mandates the existing borough and district councils to work together on a new ‘board’ to share running of county services (e.g., Highways, Adult Social Care, Children’s Services) – effectively becoming five very small unitary councils.
We’ll briefly set out the pros and cons of each, while noting that we have not yet built the business case for any of them. This work is happening now. The short timeline allowed by government entails running public engagement and evidence-building simultaneously.
We are keen to hear your ideas on how a new council structure can improve things for residents as well as whether you think Hastings should have a town council in the future.
Citizens’ Assembly Approach
I am pushing for a Citizens’ Assembly approach to co-designing the new councils. In June, focus groups, face-to-face meetings, and an online question time will allow all three proposals to be presented. I am grateful for the offer of help from Hastings Assembles.
You’ll find dates and venues here: hastings.gov.uk/devolution We’ve also planned drop-in sessions at supermarkets from 10:30 to 12:30 on the following dates.
- 9 May: Morrisons, Queens Road
- 11 June: Asda, Silverhill
- 13 June: Tesco Extra, Hollington
The survey results will help inform the final business cases, to be completed by 28 September. We are expected to demonstrate the financial viability and sustainability of any option. Ministers will make the final decision on the size and shape of our new authorities.
As our resident participation plan has been extensively discussed in our weekly cross-party councillor working group over recent weeks, I was disappointed to find on the back of the last issue of this paper, a full-page advert placed by the Hastings Independent Group accusing the Green-led administration of being silent on the issue.
While timescales are incredibly tight to make a business case to government by the end of September, we can use the opportunity to design any new councils from scratch. For the residents who have expressed frustration with the lack of cohesion and collaboration between County and Borough, here is a real chance to change that.
I am strongly committed to embedding community-led work in the shaping of any new council. I hope everyone takes the chance to feed in their own ideas of what shape this might take.
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