West Sussex council reorganisation should be stopped, says UNISON
The Government needs to stop the local government reorganisation (LGR) process and concentrate on giving West Sussex councils the funding they need.
This was the message from Dan Sartin, branch secretary of the trade union UNISON West Sussex, after the Government again failed to decide how the county should be divided under LGR.
Mr Sartin said: “Without restoring local government funding first, and following savage austerity cuts since 2010, LGR will be hugely destabilising to public services and the staff who deliver them in West Sussex.
“LGR will undermine staff and services over several years, creating a long period of unnecessary distraction.”
LGR is the Government’s plan to simplify local government by ending the two-tier system and establishing new single-tier unitary councils. But, for West Sussex at least, the journey towards achieving that aim has been uphill all the way.
The county council proposed one unitary authority to cover the whole of the county, while the district and borough councils proposed two – with Adur, Arun, Chichester and Worthing in one, and Crawley, Horsham, and Mid Sussex in the other.
But the Government put forward a third option – not popular with any of the councils – placing Chichester, Crawley, Horsham and Mid Sussex in one authority, with Arun, Adur and Worthing in another.
Mr Sartin said staff who provide vital services were “on their knees” after more than a decade of austerity and restructuring – and the additional uncertainty surrounding LGR was “creating anxiety”.
He added: “Staff don’t know their employer’s future identity, what will happen to their job roles or their terms and conditions in future years.”
As for council leaders and MPs “who are cheering on this dangerous fiasco”, Mr Sartin said they were “doing council staff a great disservice”.
He added: “The number one issue in local government is funding – moreover the continued lack of it to run the services at the level the public need.
“By allowing Government to continue to focus on these bureaucratic governance issues, they are letting them off the hook as these won’t solve the problems councils have.
“The national budget on Wednesday hasn’t provided the breakthrough funding we need, and nor will LGR. It will only make the underfunding worse by layering on huge change and disruption for no purpose.
“It’s time to stop LGR and give West Sussex the fair funding it needs.”