Somerset councils to merge into single unitary authority

Somerset County Council's proposal for a new single unitary authority has been accepted by the government

Five councils in Somerset are to be replaced with a single unitary authority, the government has said.

Pending parliamentary approval, the county and four district councils will cease to exist on 1 April, 2023.

The Conservative-led county council that proposed the single unitary authority has welcomed the decision.

The four district councils that proposed an alternative of two unitary authorities have said the plan ignores residents' wishes.

The decision was announced on Wednesday by Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick MP.

'Levelling down'

He said the single authority idea "strongly met" the local government and service delivery criterion while the alternative failed to do so.

A statement issued by Mendip, South Somerset, Sedgemoor and Somerset West and Taunton district councils said: "By ignoring the will of the people, the Secretary of State is breaking the bond of trust between elected representatives and those they represent."

Leader of South Somerset District Council Val Keitch added: "This is going to be all five councils working together and we have to do the very best to represent the interests of our constituents.

"We just feel our proposal would have been better.

"The government is always talking about levelling up. Our proposal was about levelling up.

"This to me is about levelling down.

"We have so much poverty and deprivation but we just have to make it work."

'Reducing waste'

Conservative leader of Somerset County Council David Fothergill said: "We've committed in our business plan that there will be representation in every area, with elected councillors in every area and we will maintain offices across the county.

"Of course you need to run services locally, you can't run them all from Taunton [the county town]."

"You can't run planning from Taunton, we've got no idea on planning in Frome so we don't need to run planning locally."

He added that social care would continue to be run locally and switching to one council would be a bonus.

"It's about reducing waste, reducing inefficiencies, investing more in services, making it more local and building a council that is fit for the future," Mr Fothergill said.