Government decision on shake-up of Hertfordshire councils expected ‘shortly’, leader says
The leader of East Herts Council has said that a decision on the Government’s paused shake-up of councils in Hertfordshire is expected “shortly”.
Cllr Ben Crystall (Green, Hertford Bengeo) made the comments at a council meeting on October 14 while speaking on a Conservative motion that called on him to ask the Government to reimburse the council for money that has already been spent on preparing for Local Government Reorganisation.
The reorganisation was due to begin next year and would have seen Hertfordshire’s 11 existing district, borough and county councils replaced with four unitary councils that took over all responsibilities within a given area.
However, the Government announced last month that the plans have been put on pause and will be reviewed.
Cllr Aubrey Holt (Con, The Mundens), leader of the Conservative group at East Herts Council, asked colleagues to back a call for the Government to reimburse costs that have so far been incurred by the authority in preparing for reorganisation, but his motion was rejected by councillors.
The council had set aside £500,000 to cover reorganisation costs, but officers have not yet calculated how much has already been spent.
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, around £1.5 million has been spent across all of Hertfordshire’s councils on preparing for reorganisation, with only £400,000 met by the Government.
Cllr Holt said the money spent so far by East Herts on reorganisation “comes directly from the pockets of East Herts taxpayers” and argued that it “should be invested here in our towns, our villages and our essential services, not swallowed up by administrative chaos”.
Cllr Crystall responded that he had “a lot of sympathy” for the motion, but that he felt it would be “premature” to ask for a reimbursement at this point.
The leader said: “I wrote to you [Cllr Holt] last week suggesting that, given the Government hasn’t made its decision yet, whether it’s going to carry on or stop - and it is due shortly apparently - it would be more sensible to delay, perhaps even to our Christmas meeting, at which point we should have an understanding of where we are.
“I would absolutely support going back to the Government and demanding the finances.”
Cllr Crystall added that he had previously sent a joint letter to the Government with other Hertfordshire council leaders asking for additional funding to cover reorganisation costs, and that he felt they would have “a much stronger case” if they asked for reimbursement jointly with other leaders.
The council’s deputy leader, Cllr Mione Goldspink (Lib Dem, Bishop’s Stortford North), also said she had “some sympathy with the thoughts behind this motion”, but spoke against it on the grounds that the Government had not made a final decision.
Cllr David Jacobs (Lab, Bishop’s Stortford Central), leader of the Labour Group, said the Conservative motion was “absurd” and “infantile”.
He said: “I’m not against the leader wasting his time by writing to Government asking for some money back. I think we all know what the answer will be.
“But I would ask the question: what happens when the pause is removed … if the Government decides to go ahead? Do we then send the money back? Do we get into ping pong with the money?”