The government has launched its consultation on Gloucestershire’s Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) proposals. This is a seven-week consultation that terminates on 26 March. Before a proposal can be implemented, the government is required to consult with any council affected that has not submitted a proposal, as well as any other appropriate persons.

The main goals of the recent White Paper are to give local areas more control over decisions (known as devolution) and to make the local government structure simpler (known as Local Government Reorganisation, or LGR).

The Future Gloucestershire website gives full details of the proposals and is the most helpful read. It is available by clicking HERE.

This website presents 3 proposals as follows;

1. Proposal for one unitary council for the whole of Gloucestershire
2. Proposal for two unitary councils: one for the west (Gloucester, Forest of Dean, Stroud) and one for the east (Cheltenham, Cotswold, Tewkesbury)
3. Proposal for two unitary councils: one would be an expanded Gloucester City, called Greater Gloucester, which includes several nearby parishes; the other would cover the rest of the county, called Gloucestershire Unitary.

The government will use the responses to help assess which option best meets the criteria for effective local government.

The full government consultation document is available online by clicking HERE

The questions asked and potential answers for each proposal are as follows. You will need to consider these when making your decisions as to which of the 3 proposals you wish to individually support.

Question 1

To what extent do you agree or disagree that the proposal suggests councils that are based on sensible geographies and economic areas?

Question 2

To what extent do you agree or disagree that the proposed councils will be able to deliver the outcomes they describe in the proposal?

Question 3

To what extent do you agree or disagree that the proposed councils are the right size to be efficient, improve capacity and withstand financial shocks?

Question 4

To what extent do you agree or disagree that the proposed councils will deliver high quality, sustainable public services?

Question 5

To what extent do you agree or disagree that the proposal has been informed by local views and will meet local needs?

Question 6

To what extent do you agree or disagree that establishing the councils in this proposal will support devolution arrangements?

Question 7

To what extent do you agree or disagree that the proposal enables stronger community engagement and gives the opportunity for neighbourhood empowerment?

Question 8

If you would like to, please use the free text box to explain the answers you have provided to questions 1-7 referring to the question numbers as part of your answer. You may also use the box to provide any other comments you have on the proposal.

Where a proposal includes a request that the Secretary of State modifies a proposal to achieve boundary change, or the proposal affects wider public services, such as fire and rescue authorities, you will be asked an additional question:

Question 9

This is a proposal that is accompanied by a request that the Secretary of State considers a boundary change or that affects wider public services. To what extent do you agree or disagree that the proposal sets out a strong public services and financial sustainability justification for boundary change?

Question 10

If you would like to, please use this free text box to explain your answer to question 9.

Answer options for each question are as follows,

• Strongly agree
• Somewhat agree
• Neither agree nor disagree
• Somewhat disagree
• Strongly disagree
• Don’t Know

Alternatively, you can send an email to [email protected] with details of your preferred option.