Mid Suffolk District Council and Babergh District Council have started investigations into the possibility of integrating services - or possibly replacing the two councils with one new council.
Both District Councils have recognised that in a climate of ever-deeper public sector cuts we cannot continue as we are. We also believe that by working together, we can reduce costs, increase capacity and enable both councils to be in a position to maintain delivery of key services in the future.
We have been working on an Outline Business Case which will be considered by each authority’s councillors, with Babergh’s Strategy Committee looking at it on July 29.
The Outline Business Case contains three scenarios for the members to consider, these are:
Scenario 1: A single Management Team (i.e. single Chief Executive and Directors) for the two Councils to deliver shared services for the Councils where appropriate.
Scenario 2: Single Management Team with a single officer structure to deliver as far as possible, fully integrated management and service delivery arrangements across the two Councils.
Scenario 3: Creation of one Council i.e. the two existing Councils would be dissolved and a single Council would be created with its own identity, statutory and discretionary functions and its own budget and policy framework, achieving the total integration and the fullest possible savings
Once Members have seen the report and decided upon which scenarios they wish to be investigated further, work will continue to pull together a more detailed Business Case before going to each Council’s Full Council meetings at the end of September for consideration.
There are more details on each of these Scenarios in the papers mentioned above.
How can you have your views heard?
Between July 22 and August 27 we are keen to get as many people’s initial thoughts and observations on these scenarios as possible
If you would like to give your views, please send them via:
Email: working.together@midsuffolk.gov.uk or paul.simon@babergh.gov.uk