Nottinghamshire council shake-up enters final week of consultation

Morning Briefing: Monday, 23rd March

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This week is the last opportunity to submit opinions on the three proposals made by Nottinghamshire councils on how they should be reorganised. The Local Government Reorganisation is the biggest change to how councils are run in 50 years, and will impact everyone who lives in Nottinghamshire.

All proposals will lead to massive changes to councils, with two brand new councils being created and Nottingham City, Nottinghamshire County, Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Broxtowe, Gedling, Newark and Sherwood, and Rushcliffe councils all ceasing as organisations. The two new unitary councils will take on all services provided to residents, hopefully seamlessly.

Town and parish councils are not affected. It can be filled in online or in a library.

The Government are still receptive to hearing thoughts on the proposals: the deadline for this is Thursday, 26th March.

Nottingham City Council is currently a "unitary" structure, which provides all services to residents. This is the Government's preferred structure.

Outside of the city is a "two-tier" structure. Nottinghamshire County Council manage key functions like adult social care, education, transport, libraries, and waste disposal. The district and borough councils provide street cleaning, planning permission, social housing, sports and leisure facilities.

The Government argues this system is inefficient, with more money spent on services which would benefit from being run centrally. They also said that it's often unclear for citizens to determine which council is responsible for the service they need.

There are three proposals to be commented on in the consultation.

Option 1b would create:

• Nottingham Council formed of: Broxtowe, Gedling, and Nottingham City.
• Nottinghamshire Council formed of: Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Mansfield, Newark and Sherwood, and Rushcliffe.

Option 1e would create:

• Sherwood Forest (North Nottinghamshire) formed of: Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Gedling, Mansfield, and Newark and Sherwood.
• Nottingham and South Nottinghamshire (South Nottinghamshire) formed of: Broxtowe, Nottingham City, and Rushcliffe.

Option Bii, which is the only option that would change boundaries, would create:

• Southwest formed from parts of: Broxtowe, Gedling, and Rushcliffe, and Nottingham City.
• North and East formed from parts of: Broxtowe, Gedling, and Rushcliffe, Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Mansfield, and Newark and Sherwood.

Due to all the upcoming changes, local elections are being delayed by one year, moving from May 2025 to May 2026. In Parliament, Jim McMahon said this about the delay:

"The rationale then, as now, is to enable open conversations about proposals and to avoid elections to a council which will cease to exist and where the future structure is unknown. Instead, existing sitting elected members will have their term of office extended for a short period to allow proposals to be developed for new unitary councils. Once these proposals are agreed upon, elections then take place at the earliest opportunity to the shadow authority."

The Government online survey is available at www.lgrnotts.org. It is also available to be filled in by hand in all council libraries and civic buildings. Central Library is open from 9am til 6am most days this week, with extends hours on Wednesday, until 7pm.