Reorganising local councils in Norfolk
Introduction
At present there is a county council, six district councils and a city council in Norfolk. The Government is looking at restructuring this to create fewer, "unitary" councils, each of which can deliver all public services. This is called Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).
In this section you will find the latest information on local government reorganisation and an archive of our various responses on LGR to central Government and the Boundary Committee.
Latest news
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has announced his decision on local government reorganisation in Norfolk. The decision is to create a unitary council in Norwich City, on the existing boundaries, while the rest of Norfolk remains two tier.
Simply put, we believe the proposals are not right for Norfolk. The five Keep Norfolk Local councils are working together, as local authorities that understand the area and its complexity to deliver cost reductions without the need for massive upheaval and multi million pound transition costs, with `right sized' shared services, shared officer arrangements and other low cost/high impact changes.
On behalf of the people of Norfolk, we asked the Secretary of State to draw the only sensible conclusion available, and leave the existing structural arrangements for local government in place in Norfolk. That has been ignored and the unitary Norwich City Council has been proposed.
That will mean a reorganisation of Norfolk County Council services to split them between Norwich and the remainder of the County. It is inevitable that this would cost money and impact on services to residents and businesses, at least in the short term, at a time when all of us are finding savings and trying to be as economic and efficient as possible, within a very difficult financial climate.
