Northumberland Today

They don't know which bid to promote, the county council agrees to back both proposals then the Deputy Leader Peter Hillman decides to back a single unitary?
Confused we are put us right please?

County will not push dual bid
COUNTY chiefs have admitted they will not promote proposals for two Northumberland councils, despite agreeing to back the bid.
Last month Northumberland County Council voted to support the submission of two options for the future of local government.Instead of putting forward only the idea of a single unitary authority, as endorsed by the council's Executive Board, members also decided to support the districts' plans for a rural-urban split in administration.But in the council's Your County magazine there is a large feature on the single unitary option and nothing on the "twin council" proposal.When Coun Diana Beith asked in a full council meeting last week what was being done to publicise the details, she was told there would be no active campaign.Deputy council leader Peter Hillman said: "We did not support two bids, we only supported both bids going forward."We will be going out with roadshows, informing people of Northumberland's bid for a single unitary council and we will advise people where they can get information on the two unitary bid should they ask for that advice."We will not be promoting the two unitary bid because we actually supported a single unitary, though we supported both bids going forward in the interests of democracy."Coun Hillman said the costs of promoting the single unitary option were minimal as the council was using existing resources for the work.He added that details of the proposal were easily accessible through the authority's website, magazine, libraries and public facilities."Through the research we carried out we found that 76 per cent of people knew nothing about local government reorganisation and a whopping 87 per cent wanted more information before making up their minds. We are responding to that," he said.The Government is expected to carry out consultation next month and give a final decision in July.District council leaders travelled to London last week to lobby ministers and county council leader Bill Brooks said he may do the same.
20 February 2007