A Local Government Vision for Bedfordshire: A Short History
Back in March 2007, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) started the process of consulting on whether unitary local government was best for Bedfordshire. The change would mean replacing the present county council and three district or borough councils (Bedford Borough Council, Mid-Beds District Council and South Bedfordshire District Council) with new arrangements for the delivery of local services throughout the shire.
All four councils have for some years gone on record as agreeing that unitary local government is the only sustainable solution for our area and one that makes sense for the community.
At that stage, the options were for a new unitary authority for Bedford or a single, county-wide unitary authority covering the whole shire (except Luton, which is already a unitary authority).
Bids
The process formally began when Bedford BC has submitted its formal bid for unitary status. The two other district councils supported that bid, principally by recommending to the Secretary of State that a new unitary authority provisionally referred to as Central Bedfordshire, based on the two existing districts, be created to serve the rest of the shire.
We believe this to be the best pattern of local government for the specific, differing needs of the local communities in the southern and middle parts of the county on the one hand, and the northern part of it on the other.
This proposal would necessarily mean the abolition of Bedfordshire County Council. The County Council put forward its own separate proposals to DCLG for a single, county-wide unitary authority. These did not succeed.
The "minded" announcement and after
The consultation set up in March 2007 and carried out over the next few months showed that there was substantial support (86%) in the communities of Mid-Beds and South Bedfordshire for a Central Bedfordshire unitary of some 250,000 people. This was noted by DCLG. It announced at the end of July 2007 that the Secretary of State was "minded" to approve a Bedford unitary.
The corollary of this preference was that the county council's bid failed. Early in 2008, the county council asked the High Court for a judicial review of this outcome. On 4 April 2008, the High Court refused to grant this. The County Council decided against appealing this decision.
The DCLG 'minded' statement of July 2007 was followed by extensive work in the existing authorities to undertake joint research into the implications, analyse what new patterns of service would entail, finalise financial projections for the new authority or authorities and study how the proposed new arrangements would make contributions to the sub-regional and regional agendas more effective. That work resulted in the formal final proposals that were being considered by DCLG in February/March 2008.
The final decision
In November 2007, the government invited the two district councils to make their formal bids for their preferred new arrangements, meeting five specified criteria and complementing the Bedford proposal, by 17 December 2007. Once it had received the joint bid, DCLG submitted it to further stakeholder consultation. Taking the results of this exercise into account, the government's final decision, published on 6 March, approved the two-unitary configuration for Bedfordshire and the relevant implementation order was finally approved by Parliament on 27 March 2008.
The new Shadow Authority and the new Shadow Executive meet for the first time on 10 April. Central Bedfordshire Council starts delivering economic, efficient and effective public services to the community on 1 April 2009.
For the text of the final full joint bid for unitary status go to its Part 1 (PDF 7.8MB) and Part 2 (PDF 6.35MB) pages. For news releases from South Bedfordshire District Council about our proposal for Central Bedfordshire please go to our communication pages.
