This meeting was attended by multiple local residents. The next Local Area Forum is 13th November.
1. Local Government Reorganisation.
Slides on this topic were presented by the Leader of Three Rivers District Council Cllr. Stephen Giles-Medhurst and can be found on the TRDC’s website: www.threerivers.gov.uk or download them here.
As per our previous post from Jon Bishop, there are three options for unitary authorities (areas) which will merge Hertfordshire’s current 11 areas (Three Rivers being one of those areas) into 2, 3 or 4 Unitary Authorities. Note, the option with 4 Unitary Authorities splits Kings Langley over 2 Authorities – is this a good option?!
Multiple local residents asked why we needed this change at all, as Hertfordshire seems to be working rather well. Stephen agreed saying we have the lowest Council tax. But we were told that Central Government issued this demand so we all must engage in this current survey (closes 30th September, cannot be extended) and a secondary consultation by Central government which begins in Jan/Feb until May 2026. The 2nd consultation will have more detail/data like costs and savings for each of the three options, so we can make informed decisions. Please engage with both surveys and voice concerns. If we say what’s important to us in the surveys then we’re more likely to get what we need. They recommended that you tell your MP what you think during the 2nd consultation stage. They also recommended that each person completes each survey, not just one per household.
A few residents asked why 1 unitary authority wasn’t considered but we were told it was considered but rejected by all 11 Hertfordshire areas, across all political spectrums. This is because a Mayor can’t oversee just 1 unitary authority and it’s silly to combine us with Bucks/Essex/Sussex – it’s just too big an area. Central goverment have dictated that all areas in England need an elected Mayor – this is devolution / shifting power from Central government to Local government. Furthermore, Central government have asked our councils to make savings of £50m.
A report created by Consultants Pricewaterhouse purported savings were made when councils merged and pooled their resources and varied services together.
Council tax is the councils’ revenue and currently, 78% of the council tax we pay goes to our County Council and 10% goes to our District Council. 50% of our County Council’s budget is taken up by Adult Care and Children’s services so combining revenue and sharing costs/resources would be beneficial. They called this combining ‘equalisation’ which took into consideration areas that are wealthy vs deprived.
Three Rivers currently saves money on our in-house services, like waste collection and certain bus routes. Hopefully we will be merged with councils who have similar in-house services however, most councils have out-sourced these services. We would hate for our services to become so very costly under outsourced contracts so we should all mention this in the survey. An outsourced contract is only as good as the person who negotatiates a good deal for the council, on behalf of us, its residents. Negotiated services, costs and savings must be transparent.
Our RDRA Chairman asked about the current CIL money (Community Infrastructural Levy totalling £2m) earmarked for improvements to our local area but, after Unitary Authorities are set up, could be diverted to non-local areas. They mentioned setting up a Neighbour Area Committee to deal with this but we’re unclear of the details.
Those who face redundancy from this local government change would likely be TUPE’d to alternative but similar companies.
Current contracts would automatically transfer to the Unitary Authorities.
One resident asked whether the Northway building would be kept. They were hopeful, because it’s modern and useful, but there’s no way of knowing really.
Currently, there are 517 councillors in total in Hertfordshire, Three Rivers has 78 County Councillors and 39 District Councillors. Under each new Unitary Authority, the number of councillors is suggested to be between 30-100 and they would need to serve on multiple committees. They’re hoping to introduce evening meetings so that it’s more inclusive, i.e. more people can volunteer to become councillors. If you agree with this inclusive suggestion, please mention it in the survey.
One resident expressed a wish not to be paired with Watford because they’re “always putting up tower blocks” but this cannot be, simply because we’re located near to each other!
A Strategic Authority will also be created to look after Infrastructure projects, which will take over from the PCC (Police and Crime Commissioner). A Mayor will preside over both Unitary and Strategic Authorities. Parish or Town Councils will be an added layer underneath.
One resident questioned whether the Mayor could interfere with the Unitary Authorities work, in a politically motivated way, but we were told that the Mayor cannot “frustrate proceedings”. The Mayor would only really be in charge of transport.
One resident asked why our buses, which are supposed to have a life span of 8 years, are still running on our roads after 16 years. We were told the Council only funds a few bus services.
One resident kept on asking “what happened with Bucks” – this is what we found out:
- Bucks council tax increased by 5% after they introduced Unitary Authorities.
- Bucks chose Unitary Authorities whilst it is mandatory for Herts – dictated to by Central government.
- Bucks didn’t ringfence their SIL money so it was distributed widely.
They also mentioned Surrey had consultations on their change to Unitary Authorities.
By 1st April 2028 the Unitary Authorities will be up and running. In May 2028, there will be elections for the Mayor.
Please spread the word about this consultation – it closes on 30th September!
Local Government Reorganisation Survey: https://www.hertfordshire-lgr.co.uk/
This portion of the meeting was minuted so we expect those minutes to appear in the agenda for the next meeting, found here: https://moderngov.threerivers.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeId=1149
If you need more information about this topic please contact: hertfordshire@connectpa.co.uk.
Click here for part 2 of the meeting: Ebury Play Area, Aquadrome, Woodland Path.
