Opinion: Unitary Authorities Are the Way Forward

Published on: 13 Aug, 2024
Updated on: 14 Aug, 2024

Surrey could be divided into three unitary authorities.

By Brian Creese

former chair of Guildford Labour

Regular readers of The Guildford Dragon NEWS will know that I am a passionate believer in creating unitary authorities in Surrey.

We currently have several layers of local authority.

We have the County Council, which is responsible for roads, refuse disposal, schools, social care, buses etc. We have borough councils, which are responsible for planning, crematoria, leisure facilities and licensing. And some of us (not all) have parish councils, which seem to be largely involved in tree and grass cutting.

It is likely that unless you actually are a councillor, or at the very least have been a candidate, you will be very hazy about which authority is responsible for what. I have only just learned that while GBC is responsible for licensing restaurants, putting tables and chairs outside, and laying down how much of the pavements they can take up, it is SCC which licenses the irritating A Boards that proliferate everywhere.

While GBC is responsible for car parks, SCC has reassumed responsibility for street parking. Our Park & Ride service, which currently looks increasingly in jeopardy, is administered by SCC but paid for by GBC (again, I believe this is the case but it may be more complex than this).

In practical terms, it means that it is often the case that when a resident complains about an issue they are told it is the responsibility of another body. All too often the second authority disagrees and thinks another one is responsible, leading to endless games of passing the buck while the issue remains unresolved.

As a result, nothing gets done and residents consequently think councillors are generally pretty useless.

If we had one local authority you would have one councillor who could not pass the buck. One local authority planning housing and roads and public transport. One ruling party with a record on which it can be held to account.

It would also mean that Surrey’s 12 borough and district council offices and hundreds of paid councillors would be radically cut back, at enormous savings for all of us.

There would still be the odd argument about where government responsibility comes in, but as I am sure you can see, having street parking and car parks run by the same authority has to make more sense than what we have now.

At the last SCC elections, Surrey Labour proposed three unitaries with around 400,000 residents in each, but there are various ways we could subdivide the county.

I will doubtless bang on about this next year when the county council elections are held, and doubtless no-one will take any notice as usual. But if you really want to see improvements in service, efficiency and value for money you could do well to have a think about unitaries and how we could make them work in Surrey.

Responses to Opinion: Unitary Authorities Are the Way Forward

Jan Messinger Reply

August 13, 2024 at 12:52 pm

I agree with most of what Brian Creese has highlighted and sadly most people have no idea if an issue is a parish, borough or county council’s responsibility.

I also feel we need to drastically save money. Streamlining would be much better.

We have all seen conflicts between councils and duplication of their work. Sometimes one council ruins something that another council has done before.

But each layer of council often has an important role in an area. I wouldn’t want to see one particular layer done away with. However having three layers is no longer cost effective, after all, residents are getting much less today while paying much more.
John Perkins Reply

August 13, 2024 at 2:00 pm

I agree that unitary authorities would be better than the current mish-mash.

However, I think it’s the top and bottom levels that should go. Surrey County Council is expensive and has a wretched reputation. Some Parish Councillors believe in politics as an end in itself rather than in service.

Perhaps the Labour party will use its current national power to do something positive.
John Cooke Reply

August 13, 2024 at 5:14 pm

I’m with you Mr Creese. I can’t see the need for multiple layers of local government or the costs involved. Although, I’m sad to admit, I felt the same about European government but it seems those promoting Brexit weren’t particularly trustworthy.

Unfortunately, I think people are frightened of losing local control, even when this news source seems to be filled with comments from people disappointed with planning or local government activity. Possibly a unitary councillor could be better held to account for what happens locally?

Also, I imagine, should a unitary authority be formed, it will inherit the debts from other boroughs such as Woking. Presumably that debt will be written off at some point and a larger unitary authority could go about looking after and promoting itself as a region.

How can we move this forward?
Peter Hyde Reply

August 17, 2024 at 6:08 am

While I agree with the creation of unitary councils it is essential to retain local parish and town councils. They may have limited powers but they can play a vital role in their local communities. Don’t judge local councils on watching the Vicar of Dibley!