‘No Nottinghamshire merger but expansion of Derby is inevitable’ - council leader

A Derbyshire council leader has ruled out any merger with Nottinghamshire, while an expansion of Derby is said to be “inevitable”.

Erewash Borough Council held a meeting last night (Wednesday, February 12) to set aside £50,000 to work with the other seven Derbyshire districts, plus Derby City Council, to hire consultants to work on local government reorganisation options.

This comes as the Government has set Derbyshire councils a deadline of March 21 for interim plans and November 28 for final submissions – and with Derbyshire County Council progressing its own separate plans.

The county’s plans are for a council for the whole existing Derbyshire area, with Derby remaining its current size, and with the districts and boroughs scrapped.

Cllr James Dawson, Labour council leader, said “a lot of people were not happy with the 1974 boundary review” and may not like this one either.

He said he sought to “set the record straight” on any potential plans for Erewash to merge with Nottinghamshire, saying he “never actually said that”, despite news coverage saying otherwise.

Cllr Dawson said there were “opportunities” posed by Erewash’s geographical position between Derby and Nottingham, but said Derbyshire districts had agreed to work together and not cross boundary lines, and that Nottinghamshire’s had agreed the same.

Cllr Wayne Major, Conservative opposition leader, said: “It is no secret that I don’t like local government reorganisation. 

“It is important to understand the scale of the problem in local government finances. At Derbyshire County Council today we approved a budget where there is £80 million in pressures from adults and children’s social care.

“That is the entire budget of six district and borough councils and if that is the current solution then it is barely a sticking plaster.

“Social care is the behemoth of services and is getting more and more expensive. 

“If this goes ahead, everything else will get sucked into these services, including money for bins and looking after our parks and for a lot of people that is why they pay their council tax.

“It will take priority. The separation we have now allows a focus on both.

“The arguments for going to three-weekly or monthly bin collections will grow louder because we need to look after our children and adults.”

He said the apparent 500,000 minimum cap on new unitaries was “too high” and said people wanted a “local focus” not “some gigantic super council”.

Cllr Major, who is also a county councillor, said the “inevitable outcome will be for us to end up part of the city council, with a new council taking in parts of South Derbyshire, Erewash and Amber Valley”.

He said: “I’d say there is a 90 per cent chance that will happen. Derby will expand. We don’t need consultants for that. I cannot support spending money for someone to tell us we should join with Derby City Council.”

Cllr Joel Bryan, who is also a Derbyshire county councillor, said he had just attended a meeting at which the county authority leadership said the “only option” was a “super council for all of Derbyshire”.

He said this would create an “enormous council that will be far away from everyone”.

Cllr Bryan said Derbyshire could create three unitaries, for north Derbyshire, south Derbyshire and the city, but said Derby would need to be made “ a bit bigger”, “but we don’t know how much bigger”.

He said: “We could be rolled over by the county council and end up with a mega council that works for nobody.”

Jeremy Jaroszek, the borough’s chief executive, said it would cost “millions” of pounds to form the new unitaries, with a similar process in Cumberland costing £19 million, with half those costs split paid for by the county and half by the boroughs.

He said the Government had committed to contributing to this funding but had not detailed how much or what proportion.

Mr Jaroszek said it was “distinctly possible that there may not be a consensus” between Derbyshire councils and that multiple submissions are made.

Cllr Steve Bilbie said the consultant funding was a “waste of public money”.