How council reorganisation became an election battle

The upcoming county council election in Nottinghamshire is an unusual one as it looks set to be the council's last - at least in its current form.

When the government announced in December it wanted to overhaul how local authorities are organised, you'd have been forgiven for thinking it would be little more than a drab restructuring and would all happen without much attention being paid.

But now, what started as a row between those most closely involved in local government appears to have spilled out into the public at large and, therefore, to voters.

Or as one local leader put it recently - "people are stirring".

It means an issue which is not, in itself, directly relevant to how Nottinghamshire County Council is run has now become a big talking point in the election campaign.

For what is an incredibly finely-poised authority, could it be enough to tip the balance in favour of one party or another?

The plans are still at a very early stage.

So-called "interim proposals" with three potential options were submitted to central government last month.

Council leaders have emphasised the submission was a progress report rather than tangible plans, and some have expressed frustration at the timeframe in which they've had to come up with suggestions.

In other words, what eventually happens could end up being completely different to any of those three options.

But regardless of all the uncertainty, the BBC has been told it has been one of the big topics of conversation on the doorstep, and it is perhaps a more divisive issue in Nottinghamshire than other areas for two reasons.

The first is council reorganisation has been on the cards in the county in recent memory.

Similar plans driven by then-county council leader Kay Cutts back in 2018 were met with criticism and ultimately failed to get off the ground.

That was a very different scenario - the Conservative government at the time seemed fairly lukewarm towards the idea, whereas now it's the Labour government pushing the plans centrally.

It does mean, however, that some key local voices are already primed to have this argument.

The second reason is the well-documented financial problems at Nottingham City Council, which Nottinghamshire County Council envelopes on all sides.

The city council doesn't have elections this year and its leaders insist its financial situation is improving, but it's not hard to see how its circumstances could have a bearing on the election outcome for its nearest neighbour.

Whilst nothing is confirmed, some of the options for reorganisation would see the city combining with surrounding boroughs to create a new, larger council.

The suggestion alone has prompted concerns from some who worry they'd end up being "absorbed" by a city with a chequered history - concerns which some politicians have been quick to seize upon.

It's a ready-made attack line for parties other than Labour, who whilst campaigning for the county council elections can point across the border into the city and give warnings about what its "expansion" could mean.

The current county council leader, Conservative Sam Smith, was among the first to break cover when the plans were unveiled by central government.

He favours the so-called "county only" option, which would see the smaller district and borough councils scrapped and Nottinghamshire turned into a unitary authority, but the existing boundary with the city would remain in place.

"Any city expansion will mean residents of Nottinghamshire will pay more tax because there will be less people paying in so the new authority will charge more, but they'll receive less services," he said.

"The Conservatives have been absolutely clear that no services should be cut as a result of local government reorganisation and nobody should pay more."

He has been joined in his calls by the county's only remaining Conservative MP, Robert Jenrick.

The position of local Labour politicians is more nuanced.

While the city council's leader has backed a "Nottingham + 2" model, the Labour group leader at the county council, Kate Foale, adopted a more cautious tone.

"There are all kinds of models being suggested, but the Labour government has only asked for a progress report, we don't have to decide until November," she said.

"Until we've seen the evidence of what will have the best impact for our residents throughout the county, then we cannot make a decision."

Labour leader of Gedling Borough Council John Clarke, meanwhile, has been quite open in saying he doesn't want the area to join the city.

All Labour voices, however, have rejected the Conservatives' characterisation of the plans as a "takeover" by the city council - arguing that all councils in the area would actually be scrapped and new authorities established in their place.

Leader of the Ashfield Independents, Jason Zadrozny, is a long-time critic of local government reorganisation, but now seems resigned to some sort of change.

"The government are forcing this to happen, it's going to happen come what may. There is the big elephant in the room that people are very nervous of being associated with the city," he said.

He said he preferred options in which the county is divided into two or three councils, but was completely opposed to a Nottinghamshire-wide unitary authority, encompassing both the current city and county.

"It's too big. People need to know they can liaise with their council and their councillors," he said.

At a national level, Reform UK has been critical of the government's plans, particularly in areas where it has meant elections have been delayed.

Locally, they are calling for a full public consultation before any decisions are made.

The party's only current county councillor, John Doddy, said: "Nobody has gone out to Nottinghamshire and said - do you want a unitary council?

"My position on this quite simply is that if the people want it, as a representative of the people I will happily give it to them."

For the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party, their positions are fairly similar and unambiguous - both think the whole thing is a waste of time.

Lib Dem candidate David Watts said: "We are opposed to the government's plans. They want to do away with a vast amount of local democracy and people really value their local areas.

"If there is an issue somebody has, they can pick up the phone and talk to somebody they know will deal with it. That's the sort of representation we want, and that's what you won't get if all the borough councillors are done away with."

The Green Party's Ben Gray called the plans "uncosted, undemocratic and unnecessary".

"There's no real promise that we're going to see greater efficiency. It's hinted at but there's no evidence to back that up," he said.

"It is evidence to reduce democracy though, taking decisions away from the grassroots up into larger and larger councils just isn't going to deliver the democracy we deserve."

Arguments over local government reorganisation will doubtless continue until well after polling day.

It seems strangely apt, however, that the campaign for the upcoming election has become so entwined with the debate which, ultimately, looks set to end with the authority being abolished entirely.

Polling day for the Nottinghamshire County Council election is 1 May.

More information and a full list of candidates is available on the council website.

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