By Andy Mitchell
Local Democracy Reporter
THE leaders of four councils want to put the brakes on plans to form a unitary authority for Warwickshire.
County, district and borough councillors are set to address the leader of Warwickshire County Council about the plans at a public meeting on Friday.
Ahead of this, the leaders of Stratford, North Warwickshire, Warwick and Nuneaton and Bedworth councils have jointly written to county council leader Cllr Izzi Seccombe asking her not to proceed with plans to be in the first round of local government reorganisation, a move that could delay May’s county council elections.
The four council leaders have warned, if Cllr Seccombe does push ahead “then we will be making it clear to the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution that we do not support the proposal from the county council”.
Izzi Seccombe
The letter states: “We urge you to withhold from requesting the deferral of the May 2025 elections. Instead, we would all wish to urgently enter meaningful, collaborative, and constructive discussions with the existing principal authorities within the county of Warwickshire to help properly consider the options that exist.”
Warwickshire County Council is set to formally express an interest in being among the first round of local government reshuffles that would see it and the county’s five district and borough councils abolished.
One new authority would then emerge to take control of all services that are currently delivered across the two tiers of local government.
It is part of the new national government’s plans to streamline council services and this is a route that has been on Warwickshire’s agenda for a number of years.
The decision to seek to move forward in the quickest possible timescale and delay May’s local elections is a political one that Cllr Seccombe (Con, Stour & the Vale) signalled her intent to take last month.
That expression of interest has to be formally submitted by the end of Friday and her decision to do so will be taken as an urgent decision.
Decisions taken by the leader of portfolio holders are usually simply signed off but if county councillors or members of the public, including district and borough councillors, wish to address the matter, a meeting held in public is convened.
It will take place at noon on Friday (10th January) at the county council’s Shire Hall headquarters in Warwick. Members of the public can turn up but can only speak if they register to do so two full working days prior to the meeting.
The report informing the decision, authored by monitoring officer Sarah Duxbury, the county council’s most senior legal authority, detailed how failure to submit interest would make Warwickshire unliklely to be considered for the first tranche.
“It would also mean that Warwickshire would be less well placed to influence the government’s proposed timescales… and the shape the geographical landscape of devolution and reorganisation within which Warwickshire sits,” the report continued.
It adds: “Not to respond would potentially be a lost opportunity for Warwickshire to be part of and benefit from deeper devolution arrangements with government, through alignment with a strategic authority, which reorganisation could help to drive, and which could optimise the benefits for Warwickshire.
“Being part of early dialogue in relation to this would also provide the opportunity to influence and shape future arrangements at a strategic level.”
The government will decide how things progress for interested areas once all submissions are in.
Ms Duxbury’s report confirmed that if Warwickshire was accepted in tranche one, elections would likely take place in May 2026, “however it would be open to the government to postpone the county council elections for a longer period”.
Cllr Seccombe confirmed last month that the application would relate to one new county-wide council for Warwickshire based on current boundaries, running through a leader and cabinet as the current county council does now, as opposed to a directly elected mayor.