Green Councillors Report

Big changes are happening to local councils, but many people don’t know about it. Across England, the government is planning to reorganise local councils. This will change how they are set up and could affect the way services are provided and how decisions are made. As your councillors, we think it’s important to share our concerns and explain how these changes might affect our area.
First, we want to be clear that we don’t support this reorganisation. We fear that down the line, it could mean council tax hikes, chaos to services, Mayors who can make sweeping decisions over local planning and parts of the County given away to the City. It seems like the government is rushing this through without asking the community what they think. People should have the chance to give their opinions, and that’s not happening right now. 
We are worried about the focus on creating big ‘super councils’ instead of fixing the real problems we face. The problem isn’t whether we have Borough, County, or Unitary councils. The problem is that councils aren’t getting enough money to meet the needs of local people, and social care is in a crisis. Unless these issues are fixed, we don’t see how making councils even bigger will help. In fact, we fear it could make things worse.
The government has not shown any proof that this change will save money or work better. In fact, the uncertainty it will cause could harm local services for years to come.The government says this plan will give people more say in their local areas, but we don’t see how creating huge councils led by a Mayor who will have vast powers, will achieve that.
Bigger councils might help in some areas, but they could also make it harder for our voices to be heard, as decisions will be made farther away from us. For villages like ours, this change will likely affect how services are managed and how much say we have in local decisions.
We will keep fighting for our area and make sure your concerns are heard. Over the next few months, we will keep you updated about what’s happening. Our main goal is to make sure any changes are thought through carefully and that our village’s needs are properly looked after.