SUPER COUNCIL PLANS CRITICISED AS JOB LOSSES LOOM

First published by: The Guardian

three councils say: they will look at merging street cleaning services.

Radical proposals to create the UK's first "super council" came under fire today as it emerged that significant job losses would result from the plans which aim to generate cost savings of up to £100m a year. The London boroughs of Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Kensington & Chelsea have proposed to merge all their services, from schools and refuse collection to child protection, under the direction of a single chief executive.Under the plans, which have been backed by communities secretary Eric Pickles, a new authority the size of Glasgow or Leeds would be created, although each council would keep its leader and local ward councillors. 

All three boroughs are currently Conservative-controlled, although Hammersmith & Fulham is regarded as a marginal, and has been led by Labour in recent years. The leaders of the three councils – Colin Barrow from Westminster, Stephen Greenhalgh from Hammersmith & Fulham and Sir Merrick Cockell from Kensington & Chelsea – said that with cuts in central government spending to reduce the national deficit, their priority was to protect frontline services. Funding cuts announced in this week's spending review will see cuts of 26% in local government funding.Pickles said: "These councils are leading the way in local government and voters will expect others to get on board and follow suit. This is exactly the sort of innovation that will help councils to protect hardworking families and the most vulnerable.

"We're supporting these sorts of moves by giving unprecedented freedom and flexibility to councils to make their own choices, funding a Council Tax freeze, and calling time on the bureaucratic red tape and pointless form-filling that has hampered councils for so long. "Sharing services is just one of the options open to councils to ensure they are making the most of every pound they have – alongside moves to become more transparent, improve procurement and cut out waste."

But trade unions warned that the move was in danger of creating a local democratic deficit. Peter Allenson, Unite's national officer for local government, said: "While the severity and speed of the coalition cuts puts horrific pressure on local authorities to cut services, we urge them not to rush into untested structures which could see service users unsure who to turn to when they need help. "From cleansing services to child protection to social care, councils have to be close to the needs of their communities and the people who elect them and pay for them and council workers need to know who is in charge.

"Super-sizing the delivery of services like this means local councillors become insignificant and have little influence on the services they provide. Voters will soon become disenfranchised and wonder what they are paying for. "People know and trust local services and have a sense of ownership. Councils play with this trust at their peril." Greenhalgh told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that there would be "significant reductions in staff".

"Clearly if you have less money to spend you are not going to be able to safeguard every job and we are going to see significant reductions in staff but this is about squeezing every penny, every pound, to protect frontline services," he said. "There is a lot of bureaucracy involved with delivering local services: in adult social care, we often find that of the three pounds we spend, one pound is spent deciding what to do with the other two. "This is about minimising that overhead and we still have political sovereignty, still have the ability to choose how we spend the money locally. What we are doing is ensuring that as much as possible goes to the frontline.

He said cuts to frontline jobs could not be ruled out. Although sharing or merging services is already widespread among smaller district councils, this is thought to be the first time that large metropolitan boroughs, which run more services, have contemplated a merger on this scale. Earlier this year Islington and Camden councils announced that they are to share a chief executive, but it is understood there are no plans for them to move to a formal merger. Andy Sawford, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit think tank said the merger would have to be well-managed if it was to achieve its aims: "It's not automatic that if you bring together three councils like this that things will be more effective and efficient, but clearly there are opportunities to make substantial savings."

Posting on the Guardian website, Cllr Emma Dent Coad, who represents Golborne Ward on Kensington and Chelsea council, said: "The Labour Opposition in K&C knew nothing about these plans, apart from some vague mentions of joint working in the future. It was agreed in secret by senior Tories who pay themselves full 'salaries' despite having other jobs, and have little to do with their electorate apart from drinkies at Christmas. There is no mandate for this."

READ WHAT: ERIC PICKLES ‘SECRETARY OF STATE’ SAYS ABOUT OVER-CHARGED COUNCIL TAX.

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