City council suggests merger with three districts

MP for Market Harborough Neil O'Brien said there was little support to see the town politically joined with the city

New proposals that could see Leicester City Council merged with three neighbouring authorities have been revealed.

The Labour-led city council has suggested it could join with Harborough District Council, Oadby and Wigston Borough Council and Blaby District Council as part of an upcoming major government-led shake up of local council boundaries.

The proposal, published in a report on Monday, is one of the options the city council is set to present to ministers who want to simplify local government across the country.

However, political leaders in Harborough, Oadby and Wigston and Blaby said the latest city council idea was unacceptable.

Leicester City Council has suggested it could merge with Harborough District Council, Oadby and Wigston Borough Council and Blaby District Council as part of the upcoming local government reorganisation.

The city council previously indicated its boundary should shift outwards in all directions to take in towns and villages currently served by neighbouring district councils.

It said wider expansion remained its preferred way forward but it had drawn up the new option, to merge with the three to satisfy conditions set by ministers overseeing the process.

A city council spokesperson said: "Final details of our submission are still being worked on and will be presented to the council's overview and scrutiny committee (OSC) on 10 November for discussion.

"A report to OSC which includes our preferred option of a sensible expansion of the city's historically constrained boundaries, along with the preferred options of the county and districts, and a legally required base proposal has been published.

"The government requires all councils to include a base proposal which includes using whole districts as building blocks. This is not the council's preferred option, but our submission would not be legally compliant without it."

Under the latest city council proposal, the rest of Leicestershire would be served by another single unitary authority for the area currently covered by Hinckley and Bosworth, North West Leicestershire, Charnwood, Melton and Rutland councils.

'Swallow up Harborough'

Neil O'Brien, Conservative MP for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston said: "My preferred option is to have no change at all to the city boundary.

"The city's previous proposal included expanding to take all of Blaby and Oadby councils already.

"This latest proposal is to swallow up all of Harborough district.

"It's basically to solve the city's shortage of housing because it would allow new house building to be dumped on us.

"The city says this is not the preferred option but they have drawn it up very deliberately.

"There's nobody in Harborough or Oadby and Wigston who wants to join the city."

Liberal Democrat leader of Harborough District Council Phil Knowles said: "There's no good case for expanding Leicester's boundaries.

"I believe the best option is that put forward by all Leicestershire's district councils for two new unitary councils around the city within its current boundary."

Tory Blaby District Council leader Ben Taylor said neither of the city's options to expand were acceptable.

Liberal Democrat leader of Oadby and Wigston Borough Council Samia Haq said: "This latest idea from the city council is extremely disappointing. Joining with the city is not what anyone in Oadby and Wigston wants to happen."

Conservative MP for South Leicestershire Alberto Costa said: "I'm wholly opposed to any attempt to expand the city boundary. This is nothing more than an opportunistic power and tax grab."

Leicestershire County Council is proposing a third vision for local authorities in the future - a so-called "doughnut" with one council authority across the county and including Rutland, surrounding a city council within its existing boundaries.