How could county look after council shake-up?

The government wants only one layer of local government, with counties and districts merging into unitary authorities

As councils in Worcestershire meet to consider their own future, nearly half of those responding to a consultation have said they would prefer the most local option.

The Shape Worcestershire process asked whether residents would prefer one council for the whole county or split it north and south.

While 48% of respondents called for a two-council option, 29% supported a single authority and 19% didn't support any form of reorganisation.

Five of the six district councils are to meet in the coming week to consider their stance, following the government's call for proposals for so-called unitary local authorities.

Worcestershire County Council and the sixth district, Wyre Forest, have already spoken in favour of a single authority for the whole county.

Of those meeting in the coming days, Worcester City and Malvern Hills District councils had previously indicated support for two councils, while Wychavon, Redditch and Bromsgrove wanted to consider evidence for both proposals.

The government has expressed a preference for new authorities to have populations above 500,000, which would only be met by a single council for Worcestershire's 600,000 population.

However, those promoting a north-south split point to the caveat that "there may be certain scenarios in which this 500,000 figure does not make sense for an area".

These figures are why nothing more local than a two-council model have been considered.

Potential savings

Meetings of the councils for Wychavon, Redditch, Bromsgrove, Worcester and Malvern Hills will discuss a report suggesting a single council would save the most money.

The north-south model would save less, although this could be increased by the two councils sharing combined services in areas like social care.

But the report also suggests that a two-authority solution "gives the opportunity to provide stronger community empowerment", as the councils would be closer to those they served.

In the consultation, support for the two proposals varied between the districts. Only Worcester and Wyre Forest had more people in favour of a single council than two.

The most strongly in favour of a two-authority model were Malvern Hills and Wychavon.

Meanwhile, there are a fair number who would prefer to leave things as they are. In most areas this ranges from eight to 18 per cent - but in Redditch, more than a third of respondents called for the current model to remain.