7:23am Wednesday 26th March 2008
By Martin Buhagiar
ACROSS the border in Bedfordshire something big is happening and I wonder if sunny Hertfordshire would ever, one day, follow suit.
Bar the shouting, it looks like Bedfordshire County Council's days are numbered.
The decision is the culmination of years and years of backroom swiping and arguing so I will not bore you with the intricate details.
The brief history is that in 1997 Luton Borough Council broke away and became a unitary authority. The county council was over the moon about this as Bedfordshire without Luton was only seen as a positive move at County Hall - little did it know that this move would eventually come back and kill it.
LBC now looks after its town's roads, schools and refuse - the lot. With the airport and a highly populated town it is a rich authority, improving all the time.
Meanwhile the county council looks after the rest of Bedfordshire's big hitting services - education, highways and social services - and recently it has failed badly.
Meanwhile Bedford Borough, Mid Bedfordshire District and South Bedfordshire District have remained in charge of local roads, parks and rubbish etc and not done a bad job.
So with certain decisions going in certain directions and certain cash-hungry areas struggling, the three councils got together and came up with the same kind of question that Jubilee Centre users recently asked: "Do we need a county council?"
The situation today is this: unless a judicial review overturns the decision - which is highly unlikely - Bedfordshire County Council will be abolished.
From May 2009 the two district councils will merge to form Central Bedfordshire and Bedford Borough will continue as Luton Borough has.
This way is much easier for the taxpayer and it will cost them much less.
In my opinion, the current system of county and district or borough councils is archaic. I believe, where possible, county councils should be abolished nationwide so that towns and districts can be run by locally-based councils.
How many people know to go to the county council over schooling, speed control or fostering issues? Not that many. And why should they?
If members of the public were asked to clearly explain what service each council ran most would struggle. Indeed journalists only know because we have to telephone the county council over a school complaint or the district council over a refuse concern.
Similarly, how many of you reading this can instantly recall the names of the county councillors who serve your ward? Tricky eh?
So what is the point of all this confusion?
Torn apart by party politics, St Albans District Council regularly blames the county council for any failings and vice versa. Would it not be easier to have one authority in charge which could be held accountable for everything?
The only problem facing Hertfordshire is its size. During the Bedfordshire debate in 2005, the Government said it had no problem with local government being simplified, but it would not allow all counties to change their political set-ups.
Under such transfers redundancies are minimal with external county council employees such as teachers, social workers and highways officials transferring to a unitary authority along with County Hall administrative staff.
In fact, with council offices in Bedfordshire set to be sold because of councils merging and closing, a sizeable profit will be made by the new authorities from land sales. With a pressing need for housing, the land could also lead to huge developments being built on brown field sites in areas where the infrastructure for thousands of cars is already in place.
Central Bedfordshire Council has already predicted it will save £11.5million a year saying the average Band D household could pay £193 less a year.
Meanwhile Bedford Borough says its taxpayers will pay ten per cent less.
So would it make sense to do the same here?
I do not know. I am sure somebody from Hertfordshire County Council will send me an email outlining just how poor a state the county will be without it.
But I remember receiving a similar email from Bedfordshire County Council when I worked up there. However money talks, and the fact that taxpayers will be paying less means it is a popular move in Bedfordshire.
Will services suffer? Who knows - but down here I am sure that Jubilee Centre users would rather that the decision to close it was taken by those based in St Albans and not Hertford.
And if county councillors are so worthwhile, where were they when the vulnerable of our district were fighting to keep this vital resource open?
I would guess that many taxpayers living in the district would struggle to remember the last time the county council did anything for them.
Maybe it was when the council gritted the roads last week, it may have been when it got their children into their first choice school or possibly when it set up speed cameras on a busy and dangerous road.
But would a Central Hertfordshire Council not be able to do the same?
Would it not be better for a local authority to be more local? Would less councillors improve local politics - I certainly believe so.
Maybe it will never happen, maybe it could in the next decade but I certainly believe Bedfordshire has got it right.
And if you were paying less for a clearer, less convoluted political system I am sure you would agree.
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