The Watford Observer wrote an article on the recent Local Area Forum which is worth a read: https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/25478623.ebury-play-area-play-area-a-jungle-amid-knotweed-closure/
The article mentions the Local Government Reorganisation consultation survey, click link below for details. Please can all residents give their views by 30th September: https://rickmansworthresidents.org/2025/09/council-reorganisation-have-your-say-deadline-30-september/
Please visit www.hertfordshire-lgr.co.uk to learn more about the proposals and most importantly, fill in the consultation survey before 30th September: https://www.hertfordshire-lgr.co.uk/.
Afterwards, please complete our RDRA poll, so we may gauge & understand local views – thank you! https://forms.gle/DLMk5AY7BDwomq3y7.
Q1: Which services are most important to you?
Q2: There are different possible ways of organising local councils in Hertfordshire in the future. Each would replace the current county, district and borough councils with a set number of fewer new councils responsible for all local services in its area. Councils are currently considering options for 2, 3, or 4 new councils covering Hertfordshire. Do you have a view on which option of 2, 3, or 4 new councils, you would prefer and what are your reasons?
Q3: What overall impact, if any, do you think would come from councils in Hertfordshire being joined with other neighbouring councils, in regard to services and value for money?
Q4: What potential benefits of this reorganisation would be most important to you?
Q5: What opportunities and improvements would you like to see come from local government reorganisation?
Q6: What concerns you the most when thinking about local government reorganisation?
This meeting was attended by multiple local residents. The next Local Area Forum is 13th November.
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:
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.
Message from Jon Bishop.
Stage 2 Review is here: https://www.threerivers.gov.uk/services/planning/planning-policy/new-local-plan#Evidence%20base towards the bottom of the page. They are long documents, so summary lists and maps are extracted below but the documents themselves contain more detail on each area.
You have probably seen the recent publicity from Stephen Giles-Medhurst about the fact that there are not enough “acceptable” sites to meet the Government targets. From what I can gather, I think we will be very short of the target which is good in terms of Green Belt defence but it does worry me that, if the figure is too low, we could end up with the Plan being found unsound by the Examiner. In the worst case, the Government could then step in and taking over all planning, including defining the Local Plan. This is the Armageddon scenario as residents will get little or no say in which sites are accepted for development. Let’s hope that a happy compromise can be found by the Council to both protect Green Belt and deliver enough housing to keep the Government happy. Together, we will need to work to make sure that residents views are properly heard in this.
(deadline 30th September)
The traffic lights on the options in the briefing note are based on a combination of information from TRDC and some analysis of available information. The Strategic Alignment category is the alignment to other high level strategic management in Hertfordshire – health, police and strategic planning.
It would be helpful if you could give me your views on:
This is the biggest change to council organisation in over 50 years and could have a material impact on the quality & cost of running councils for the foreseeable future.
Timelines are very tight, with the survey closing on 30th September.
https://rickmansworthresidents.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/LGR-Consultation-Briefing-TRJRA.pdf
Hertfordshire’s 11 councils have today (3 September) launched a second phase of engagement on the future of local government in the county.
Residents, community groups, businesses and wider stakeholders are invited to share their views on how services will be delivered in Hertfordshire in the years ahead. This is a once in a generation opportunity to help shape the future of local government.
In December 2024, the Government set out plans to simplify local government in England to make it easier for residents and businesses to access services and to save money.
In Hertfordshire, there are currently two types of council:
Under the Government’s plan, these councils will be replaced by new unitary councils that will deliver all services currently provided by the two separate types of council.
All councils in Hertfordshire are working together to explore what this would look like. The aim is to create a system of local government that is easy to understand, delivers good value for money and responds to the needs of local areas.
Over the next month, councils will hold a mix of in-person and online events across the county. A dedicated website will also give further information on the changes, how you can get involved and share your views. This will remain open until 30 September 2025. After this date councils will review all the feedback before submitting the final proposal to Government at the end of November.
Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst OBE, the Leader of Three Rivers District Council, said: “This is set to be a huge moment of change for local government in Hertfordshire, and in Three Rivers. For many years we have all been accustomed to having a county council and a district council responsible for different services in our areas.
“This forthcoming reorganisation will change that, and now is you chance to have your say about what you would like the future of local government in our county to look like. Would you like smaller councils or larger councils, covering bigger areas? Visit the website, come to the events, find out more and have your say.”
Hear Cllr. Stephen Giles Medhurst explain about the Local Government Reorganisation on YouTube (scroll to bottom of page)
Whilst this is obviously very early in the process and our views could change as proposals develop and more information becomes available, I have discussed this matter with Joint Residents’ Association . This is the outline of my initial views. The views below are based on an assumption that the move to a unitary authority is going to happen and therefore we have not considered whether moving to this is better than the current council structure.
Having considered the guidance provided by the Government, it would appear a model where Hertfordshire is split into two unitary authorities (South-West Hertfordshire and North-East Hertfordshire) would provide the best balance of local democracy with being able to leverage economies of scale to deliver increased efficiency.
In this model, South-West Hertfordshire would probably constitute an amalgamation of Three Rivers, Dacorum, Watford, St Albans and Hertsmere. This aligns with the group of districts that are already working together on the Joint Strategic Plan and amounts to approximately half of the population of Hertfordshire County. It also approximately aligns to the local NHS Trust area that used to be covered by the Herts Valleys CCG and now Herts and West Essex ICB.
It is believed that a council of this size will be able to maintain a local perspective whilst balancing the need to deliver increased efficiency. It is possible that a three-council model (West, Central and East) could work but would have an initial population below the level suggested by the Government, about 400,000 each. However, based on the new homes requirement from the Standard Methodology, it would appear that the population of each of the areas will grow quickly.
Whilst a single Hertfordshire Unitary authority would enable increased economies of scale to be generated, it is our feeling that it would be too distant from local areas and would significantly weaken true local democracy, so this is not a preferred alternative.
Within this re-organisation, we strongly feel that consideration should be given to delegating some of the roles of the current district councils to local councils where the need for local knowledge could outweigh the savings that can be made through consolidation of services. This could include areas such as play areas, parks, green spaces, leisure and, possibly, small (not major) planning applications. After all, the best way to economise is to make the right decisions first time and this is aided by local knowledge.
Looking to the future, it is possible that a mayor covering a much wider area than the councils could be a good move – possibly Herts, Essex and Bucks. These areas form the Northern Home Counties, and all have fairly similar natures – in particular being largely dependent on London for employment. As such their concerns are broadly aligned, particularly with regard to transport. This would comprise an area with a population of just over three million, about the same as Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. These mayoralties seem to work well for strategic matters such as transport but should not be involved in more local matters.
To ensure that whatever solution is finally decided upon has the widest possible buy-in, we ask that Residents Associations are included in the discussions on this matter, either through local RA’s or through the Joint RA.
Ashok Pattni
Message received 11 Mar, 2025 – via email.
I know that the re-organisation was mentioned as part of the General Election but when one has one choice of ‘vote for Labour, Conservative or Other’ it does not allow for nuance.
I live in Rickmansworth. I have Batchworth Community Council, Three Rivers and Hertfordshire County Council.
I am very happy with that. BCC is very local and the people managing it know and experience what I do.
Three Rivers manages a wider range of things and HCC overarching and ‘big’ stuff.
Furthermore, it is MY money which pays for these organisations (along side other members of the communities) and it is far closer to Democracy than a once in five year national election.
I do not want to be part of a merger into other localities which bear no resemblance of mine.
Message received 9 March, 2025 – via email.
As an active resident of Three Rivers I support the creation of two or more local government authorities in Hertfordshire.
I do not believe the whole of Herfordshire should become one unitary authority.
Message from Three Rivers District Council.
Local authorities are required to develop proposals for reorganisation, in areas where there are currently two tiers of local government.
This will be a once in a generation change that effects local people and services for decades to come. It is therefore important that there is proper consideration of the options and meaningful consultation with residents, key local organisations, including business, and our public sector partners.
Our priority is to ensure any changes genuinely benefit residents and businesses while safeguarding high-quality local services.
Hertfordshire’s leaders are working together to explore the best way forward, but we do not support a single unitary council. Hertfordshire is simply too big to be run by a single council. With a population of 1.2 million across urban, suburban, and rural areas, it would be much larger than any local authority in the UK, creating an oversized bureaucracy that could slow down decision-making and make services less responsive to the needs of our diverse communities. Local issues require local solutions, and one giant council would risk losing the connection between residents and the services they rely on, and maintaining these connections is our priority.
All councils in Hertfordshire, along with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, are collaborating to assess the options. However, with no agreed proposals, Hertfordshire will not be included in the first phase of reforms. Given the financial and staffing challenges councils already face, it is essential to balance the delivery of vital services with any future governance changes.
This process is still at an early stage, and we want to keep residents, businesses, and stakeholders updated as discussions progress. Any changes must be carefully considered, transparent and inclusive, ensuring that residents and businesses are fully engaged in shaping the future governance of Hertfordshire. As we consider future options, we would therefore be eager to hear your views in this initial early stage, particularly on whether Hertfordshire should have more or less local councils and your views on what this would mean for decision-making in our communities.
We are committed to ongoing consultation and involvement and we will expect to deliver more formal stages of public consultation as plans progress.
If you wish to share your initial views please send those through to us at devolutionlgr@threerivers.gov.uk by Wednesday 12 March 2025.