Emma Stokes, a member of Evesham Town Council and Worcestershire County Council, made the comments to town council members at a meeting last Monday (January 13).
In the meeting, councillor Stokes said: “It isn’t a case of a choice but we as the local authority, as the county, were told on December 16, you’re going to go unitary and there’s no choice on that.
“It (Worcestershire County Council) was devolved on December 16 but there will be no two-tier. So all 7 of the local authorities will be dissolved into one unitary.
“This isn’t devolution full stop.
“The promise is the government wants all its mayors to fit in one room.
“It wants 30 mayors it can control and that is its aim.
“We are talking now about a one-term government absolutely ripping the heart out of democracy.
“This is not a choice that any sensible person wanted.
“It’s a choice for sensible discussion but we didn’t have time and there’s no time for that.
“The government in its urge to control as much power as it thinks it can get and to do as much damage to this society as it possibly can has pushed it through so quickly that all your thoughts don’t matter and that’s not a county decision that is actually a Labour decision directly affecting everyone in this room.”
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Following the comments councillor Hale double-checked councillor Stokes’s timeframe and questioned why the council had been given only three weeks.
As part of its devolution plan, the government wants all two-tier areas to be replaced by unitary councils, with populations of at least 500,000.
It also wants to see the formation of strategic authorities – groups of councils with a total population upwards of 1.5 million, potentially with an elected mayor.
Councillor Julie Tucker believes the move from the government is centralisation and not devolution and said: “I agree with what Emma said, it’s not devolution its centralisation.”
Councillor Mark Goodge: “The Government has decided to abolish us and replace us all with a unitary authority or authorities.
“The existing two-tier authorities across the country are being abolished and are being replaced by unitary authorities which the government wants to have in place by either 2027 or 2028 at the latest, so it’s all going to happen very quickly.
“We don’t yet know precisely what the new Worcestershire council make-up will look like.
“That is pretty much all we know right now and we won’t know any more until we get the government’s response which should come sometime next month (February).”
The Government says the plans will ‘finally give local leaders and communities the tools they need to deliver growth for their area and raise living standards in every part of the country’.