Keep Norfolk Local
Keep Norfolk Local councils have made a strong submission to the Secretary of State opposing the recommendations from the Boundary Committee for England to abolish all councils in Norfolk, and create one, giant unitary council.
A unitary Norfolk would be one vast and remote bureaucracy - twice the size of Luxembourg - with each councillor serving thousands of electors. It would be near impossible for them to know their local residents and local issues as intimately as they do now.
It could lead to higher council taxes, lost rural jobs and reduced services in an economy deep in the worst recession in living memory and struggling to recover. This could not have come at a worst time.
It would be:
- bad for council tax payers
- bad for the local economy
- bad for local services
- bad for democracy
- bad for communities.
The five Keep Norfolk Local councils are working together, as local authorities that understand the area and its complexity to deliver an enhanced status quo, with `right sized' shared services, shared officer arrangements and other low cost/high impact changes that will deliver equal cost reductions without the need for massive upheaval, a loss of democratic representation and multi million pound transition costs.
We believe that structural change in Norfolk is not wanted, has no clear measure of public support, has no champion for its implementation, would disrupt service delivery at the very time the public are relying on services more than ever, and is based on an out-of-date financial assessment.
On behalf of the people of Norfolk, we have asked the Secretary of State to look closely at the details provided in our submission, and to draw the only sensible conclusion available - leave the existing structural arrangements for local government in place in Norfolk.
Local government reorganisation in Norfolk has not been asked for, is not wanted or necessary, and simply put the proposals are not right for Norfolk. The Boundary Committee has got it wrong and their conclusions should be rejected.
Latest news
- You’ve been ignored! (Wednesday 23 December 2009)
- Local government reorganisation delayed (Tuesday 30 July 2009)
- Update from Secretary of State (Thursday 9 July 2009)
- Our response to the Boundary Committee (Thursday 28 May 2009)
All the five Councils associated with the Keep Norfolk Local Campaign expressly dissociate themselves from any website, search engine or on-line social networking facility that may include or provide links or references to this website.
