Leader floats merger with neighbouring county

The leader of South Kesteven District Council floated the idea of merging with Rutland

A council leader has said he is "open to a conversation" about merging with a neighbouring county.

Ashley Baxter said there was a case for South Kesteven District Council to merge with Rutland.

The independent leader's comments come in the wake of the government's plan to reorganise local councils into single tier authorities.

Lincolnshire County Council leader Martin Hill dismissed Baxter's idea as "nonsense", arguing that it does not meet the criteria for new authorities, as it would cross mayoral combined authority boundaries.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Hill told a meeting he thought the county would split into north and south unitary authorities.

Baxter described this as a "two-state solution for Lincolnshire" and expressed his belief that three unitary authorities, each with more than 300,000 residents, would work better.

"I think there is definitely a case for an authority that includes the rural areas of south Lincolnshire and Rutland, and maybe even Melton," Baxter said.

He noted that many Rutland residents look to Lincolnshire for employment and shopping opportunities.

Baxter added: "There's definitely a case for it. If we are seriously talking about local government reorganisation, Rutland should be part of that discussion."

South Kesteven Council leader Ashley Baxter is calling for smaller unitary authorities

Hill pointed out that the two councils had a combined population of 185,000, which does not meet the government's criteria of at least 500,000 people for each new unitary authority.

"Bluntly, trying to cobble something together with Rutland and South Kesteven is nonsense," he said.

"It doesn't hit the criteria on population numbers, it doesn't hit the criteria on not going over mayoral combined authority boundaries, and it doesn't hit the criteria in terms of not disrupting services—obviously, the big service is social care. It doesn't really make any sense at all."

Leicestershire County Council recently announced it is unilaterally continuing with its proposal to create a single unitary authority for Leicestershire, though now without the inclusion of Rutland.

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