News
NALC responds to proposals for locally-led re-organisation
The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has responded to the government consultations for locally-led re-organisation in Cumbria, Somerset and North Yorkshire.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) recently sought views from stakeholders on the eight bids for unitary local government in Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset. After extensive engagement with its Policy Committee and National Assembly recently, NALC has decided to support some principles for locally-led re-organisation which are considered to benefit local (parish and town) councils. NALC has not commented on the individual bids submitted during this latest unitary authority creation round.
In its response to the three consultations, NALC has underlined some key principles of its own which should be enshrined into every unitarisation process, including creating new local councils in all un-parished areas during a community governance review, with early and full engagement between a new unitary authority with its local councils and county association of local councils. NALC also argued for the abolition of all remaining charter trustee bodies when new unitary authorities are created, and that a charter should always be framed between the new unitary authority and its local councils so that resources, services and assets are properly agreed and drawn down between both local government tiers from the start.