We urge County Councillors to call this in

Members not told of late changes to county 's unitary council bid
County council headquarters, County Hall in Morpeth.

By ANNA SMITH
LAST minute changes were made to the bid for a 'New Northumberland' without councillors' approval, it has emerged.
Members were dismayed to learn the proposal for a single unitary authority for the county was altered just days before the final deadline for submissions.And Castle Morpeth Council leader Peter Jackson, who is also a member of Northumberland County Council which put forward the bid, has complained that councillors were kept in the dark about the changes.Read more ...Services may be moved southAssets to be soldNow he has warned the new document could have far-reaching consequences as it outlines plans to sell-off £139m of assets and move some services to Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire."We in the districts consulted widely on our plans for two unitary councils, but unfortunately the county council did not consult widely on the bid for a single unitary," he said."What it did was change the submission fundamentally just a few days before the end of the consultation stage."There was no consultation about these changes because there was no time to do it."They haven't even got the democratic
legitimacy of the county councillors."A county council spokeswoman said the submission was not changed, but further work was added in line with government regulations."Northumberland County Council did not change its submission to a new proposal."As permitted during the Government's consultation phase, further development work was carried out and more information was provided by the council in support of the original proposals."All of the documents are publicly available on our website," she said.The government approved the submission for a single unitary authority for Northumberland in July, agreeing to scrap the existing six district bodies and the county council.However, district authorities in Castle Morpeth, Blyth Valley, Alnwick and Berwick are challenging the legality of the reorganisation, arguing that the Secretary of State had no powers to make the decision.
Last Updated: 06 September 2007 12:07 PM