Consultation launched on future of local government

Proposals for how council services could be delivered in Derby and Derbyshire in the future have been put out for consultation by the Government.

The seven-week statutory consultation is the next milestone in the Government’s Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) process, which will see the biggest shake up of local councils for more than 50 years.

The consultation is seeking views on five proposals for the county area of Derbyshire, which were submitted to Government in November last year:

Seven of Derbyshire’s eight district and borough councils, together with Derby City Council, submitted their ‘One Derbyshire, Two Councils’ plan to create two new unitary councils to cover the whole of the county.

This plan includes four separate proposals, which differentiate on the basis of where the boundary line between the northern and southern councils is drawn.

Derbyshire County Council submitted a separate proposal to create a single unitary council covering the whole of the county.

The statutory consultation is a formal, legally‑required process, which must be carried out by the Government before it can make a final decision on which proposal to support.

It is separate to the two local LGR public consultations (one by Derbyshire County Council and one by the districts, boroughs and Derby City Council) which ran last summer and helped to shape the proposals.

Residents, businesses and organisations are now being encouraged to have their say on the final proposals in this next round of consultation, which closes on 26 March.

The councils themselves are also invited to submit a formal response to the consultation.

The results will help the Government understand what people and organisations think about each of the proposals, before ministers make a final decision in the summer.

Under the Government’s current timetable, elections to any new shadow authority or authorities would take place in 2027, and the new unitary council or councils would start to operate on 1 April 2028.

To take part in the consultation click here.