Coronavirus: 'Worst' Northamptonshire council axe could be delayed

Northamptonshire County Council chief executive Theresa Grant said plans for two new unitary authorities will be not be "as all encompassing" as officers concentrate on the coronavirus crisis

A council dubbed the "worst-run" in the country could get a stay of execution due to the coronavirus crisis.

Northamptonshire County Council is due to be replaced by two new unitary authorities in April 2021.

Chief executive Theresa Grant said plans for local government reorganisation have been "scaled back".

She said the situation will be continually reviewed and "if we believe it is not a viable option we will go back to government".

Two shadow authorities, which are overseeing the move to a unitary set-up, come into existence next month.

The districts would be split into two large blocks and the county and district councils would disappear

They will run alongside the existing county council and seven district and borough councils, which will all ultimately be replaced.

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According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Ms Grant said it would be up to these authorities to decide if the formation of the new councils should be put back.

At a county council meeting on Tuesday, she said a new scaled-back plan would be not be "as all-encompassing" because the council has "prioritised Covid".

Government appointed inspector Max Caller said Northamptonshire County Council should be scrapped following a review in 2018

Conservative councillor Adam Brown said the unitary reorganisation "should play second fiddle to normal people's lives".

There should have been shadow council elections this month, but they were scrapped due to the pandemic lockdown.

There have been no county council elections in Northamptonshire for six years.

North Northamptonshire Shadow Authority leader, Russell Roberts, said councillors have had to "rethink our ambitions as to what we can achieve by Go Live Day [next April]".

His West Northamptonshire Shadow Authority counterpart, Ian McCord, was confident the new authorities would be launched as planned, but added "much of the behind-the-scenes work of integrating staff" would be completed "later on".

The financially-troubled county council banned all new spending twice in 2018, leading to Kettering's Conservative MP Philip Hollobone calling it "the worst run in the country".

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