Back in December, we wrote about how District Councils in Suffolk were going to be abolished, and that it could happen in Essex as well.
However the government has now decided that District Councils will still continue in Norfolk – the only change will be that Norwich will become a ‘unitary’ authority , completely separate from the rest of the surrounding county.
This must surely increase the chances of District Councils surviving in Essex, including our own Rochford District.
There is a 2009 assessment of Rochford District Council on a website called oneplace, a Directgov website. It sounds, to me, as if we are living a utopian lifestyle. Makes good reading if anyone is interested. It also states that Rayleigh, Hockley and Rochford take over half the population of the district and they want to build more housing in Rayleigh and Hockley! Over half the population of Rochford District!
http://oneplace.direct.gov.uk/pages/default.
Hopefully, that is the link.
Mike, many thanks for highlighting Oneplace. Like most Govt stuff it has it’s uses… within limits…. 🙂
I don’t think the link works though – you can download the full report at http://oneplace.direct.gov.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/pdf/2009/OrganisationalAssessment/OrganisationalAssessment2009RochfordDistrictCouncil_Full.pdf
Chris looking at the size of our district do you not think that it is plausible that Rochford could become part of Southend Council. This may well be sold on the fact that our ‘premier level’ councillors are paid very well indeed in comparison to the size of the district and Southend council would say that they could save money by losing these highly paid servants of the residents?
It’s plausible, but only as part of a big change for Essex as a whole – and if it happened it would probably be a Southend/ Castle Point / Rochford merger.
Councillors allowances would not be a big factor in a merger. The total cost is fairly small from Southend’s point of view (though not from ours – what would you rather have – a cabinet system or pay on exit car parking in Websters Way? )
Southend might not want us though – we get a low level of governnment grant per head of population (2nd lowest in Essex)
There would be a few local politicians playing politics with this scenario Chris, jockeying for the best jobs!!