Hastings Borough Council response to devolution and local government reorganisation agreed

Following the Full Council discussions, the council’s Cabinet met afterwards to agree the council’s initial response. Given the government's current guidance, all the districts and borough councils have agreed that the direction of travel is towards a single unitary proposal on the current East Sussex footprint. This would be mean the abolition of all five district and boroughs and the county council in East Sussex.

However, two other options have been put forward by Hastings councillors, which were discussed at the full council meeting: a smaller coastal unitary; and a federated model that retains the current district and borough councils but removes the upper tier county council and proposes a shared service model.

Since the publication of the government’s original criteria, they have said that other models and sizes of population could be considered if a strong rationale can be made for a different solution. The cross-party working group on Local Government Reorganisation will be considering the evidence base and financial viability for these other options along with the current preferred option in more detail over the coming months.

Cllr Julia Hilton, Leader of Hastings Borough Council, will be writing a letter to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to explain that, for Hastings, we want to consider these three options in more detail when the evidence for each option is available.

The covering letter will be accompanied by an ‘interim plan’ from all the districts, boroughs and East Sussex County Council. They have agreed, that given current government guidance, the preferred option is a unitary based on the current East Sussex county boundary. The current criteria are:

Proposals should seek to achieve for the whole of Sussex and Brighton the establishment of a single tier of local government that:

• Is of the right size to achieve efficiencies, improve capacity and withstand financial shocks (population of 500,000 or more);
• Prioritises the delivery of high-quality and sustainable public services;
• Meets local needs and is informed by local views;
• Supports wider devolution arrangements;
• Enables stronger community engagement and neighbourhood empowerment and
• Uses existing District and Borough boundaries as the building blocks for any new unitary authority.

Should the government change the criteria or residents express a strong preference for an alternative arrangement these will be reflected in the final submission in September.

Councillors also discussed the council’s response to the government’s consultation on Devolution for a Strategic Mayoral Combined County Authority for all of Sussex and Brighton at the meeting.

There was general cross-party support for this proposal, but councillors are asking for further information on what this would mean for Hastings. The council will be responding to the consultation before it closes on Friday 13 April. Anyone who lives in Sussex can have their say on the consultation, find out more at Sussex and Brighton devolution consultation - GOV.UK

Cllr Julia Hilton, leader of the council, said: “I was grateful to councillors for the passionate and considered contributions to the discussion and their time in our working group discussions so far. We all became councillors to serve our communities and it is really important that we take this opportunity to use our shared skills and knowledge to come together to design the future for Hastings and this new council’s role in empowering our communities to be part of that.

“We are committed to wider public consultation over the spring and summer, and we want to hear from as many residents and other stakeholders as we can do about your thoughts and views on what the new council should look like and how it should deliver the services you need.”

You can read the full reports for Full Council and Cabinet. You can watch the meeting recordings back.