Meeting documents

The Chairman welcomed Councillor Martin Tett (Buckinghamshire County Council) to the meeting.  Councillor Tett explained that he had brought two colleagues with him, Councillor Gareth Williams (Deputy Cabinet Member for Resources, BCC) and Richard Schmidt (Head of Strategic Finance, BCC).

The Chairman opened up the item for Members to ask questions of Councillor Tett.

The following points were noted:

• That the future of the unparished areas in High Wycombe would be a decision for the Executive Board of the new single unitary authority to  make but it was felt there were three options:

§  Keep it as it is.

§  Institute a Town Council.

§  Or institute a series of Parish Councils.

• That the proposed unitary council would be an entirely new Council.  
• That Councillor Tett doubted he would be the head of the proposed unitary Council as there were 236 Councillors across Bucks to select from, of which the vast majority (67%) were twin hatters.
• That Councillor Tett believed a unitary Council would be the most sensible option as it could drive better economic deals (e.g. waste) and the Council would be able to command a greater voice.  He stated that if there were two Councils they would need duplicated roles such as two Chief Executives, two Finance Departments, two Legal Departments, two Heads of Children Services, two Heads of Social Services, etc which would be very costly.
• That the growth corridors (East to West and North to South) needed to be looked at in order for the Borough to be globally competitive.
• The current business case for a single unitary Council, based on similar Councils in similar areas, would be made up of 98 Councillors.  Councillor Tett stated that  advice had been taken from the Boundary Commission and for convenience existing boundaries for County Councillors could be used and the number being proposed in the County Council submission could be doubled up to result in the 98 Councillors required. Members were informed that the proposed new housing had been taken into account.
• Councillor Tett believed the workload for staff would remain the same with the need for fewer Chief Executives and Heads of Service.  It was noted that there was an enormous amount of surplus assets which if sold off could result in a massive investment in Town Centres and roads across the County. 
• Councillor Tett believed the earliest the changes would take place would be May 2020.  It was noted that a boundary review would need to be undertaken by the Boundary Commission.
• Councillor Tett believed that whilst the decision about whether the full District Elections in all four districts scheduled for 2019 should take place as planned was a DCLG issue, although if the new single unitary was implemented, he envisaged the 2019 District Elections being cancelled and existing offices for Members extended by a year until the 2020 implementation date for the new Council.
• That separate Planning and Licensing Committees could be created so that local people would be taking local decisions on local planning / licensing applications which had already been done in other Boroughs.
• Councillor Tett informed Members that, in response to a question about management of County Council reserves, the population in Bucks was approximately 530,000.  Members were informed that Councillor Tett agreed that High Wycombe was the most strategic section of the Borough although Aylesbury had the biggest population growth areas.  Councillor Tett went onto explain that High Wycombe was where the economic heart of the community was and that as such he would not want to see the vibrancy damaged. 
• Councillor Tett explained that whilst making savings was important as it would result in money being able to be re-invested in projects the proposal to go unitary was not just about the money.  It was noted that the biggest gain of going unitary was bringing together the strategic planning (housing, infrastructure, etc).  Councillor Tett informed Members that fundamentally it was all about providing a better service to residents. 
• Councillor Tett informed Members that as Leader of Bucks County Council he had spent some of their capital reserves on an incinerator.  It was noted that the reserves had been built up over a number of years to cover this cost and that the incinerator benefitted the residents of High Wycombe. 
• Councillor Tett explained that if the decision was made to have  two Unitary Councils as opposed to one it would result in services such as Social Services being split over two Councils which was compared to being like a ‘broken egg’.
• Members were informed that if the decision was made for a single unitary there would still be a need for some one-stop shops in the High Wycombe area. 
• Councillor Tett informed Members that whilst he was always being told about the differences between the north and south areas of the Borough he felt there was no difference just a real perception that there was a difference.  It was noted that Councillor Tett believed it would be very important to create a new unified culture amongst the Borough to remove any divisions created in the past. 
• Councillor Tett believed that for the vast majority of staff it would be a case of simply slotting them into new posts.  It was noted that the business case did not assume any frontline staff would be lost.  However, the decision about more senior posts would be a decision for the newly elected Members of the new Council to make. 
• Councillor Tett explained that with regard to the transfer of assets to Parish Councils he felt that whether it was one or two Councils the answer would be that the Council/s would be open to discussions with existing town and parish councils.  It was noted that depending on the value of assets the Town or Parish Council would have to accept some of the cost / value of it. 

The Chairman thanked Councillor Tett, Councillor Gareth Williams and Richard Schmidt for attending and answering Members questions.