Councils expected to reject merger

9:43am Wednesday 10th January 2007

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GOVERNMENT plans to offer councils the chance to merge and become "super-sized" authorities are likely to be rejected by Dartford and Gravesham.

Both councils have to tell the Government by the end of the month whether they want to become a single unitary authority.

This would mean they could merge with other councils in Kent, including each other.

A merged council would operate all the services currently run by Kent County Council (KCC) alongside all the work already done by borough councils.

This means services such as transport, social services and education would no longer operate at county level from KCC's offices in Maidstone.

Instead, merged councils could receive money and staff currently allocated to KCC to run these departments, in effect offering everything residents pay for with their council tax.

The Local Government and Public Involvement Bill, introduced in December, invites councils to apply to follow this option and become a unitary authority.

However, it also gives the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Ruth Kelly the power to order a council to merge with others.

Gravesham Council is to hold a meeting on January 23 to decide what to do.

Council leader Councillor John Burden says the Government could order councils to merge if they are not delivering to residents.

He does not think Gravesham would face this fate at the moment.

However, he admits if there are changes to the council's services, the Government might take a different view.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Cllr Burden says the likely outcome is Gravesham Council will follow an option to work more closely with KCC rather than merge.

Dartford Council leader Councillor Jeremy Kite says the decision has already been taken to not merge.

Cllr Kite plans to tell the Government he wants to continue strong links with Gravesham and work closely with KCC.

According to Cllr Burden, services currently only offered by KCC can be brought closer to home.

This could mean highways offices and education services being made available in Gravesend's Civic Centre instead of in Maidstone.

In theory, a merger between two councils, such as Dartford and Gravesend, would be put in place a year after the decision was made.

The councils would work in tandem for 12 months.

After this, all services would be operated by the new unitary authority.

Cllr Burden said: "If it was a requirement we could merge.

"It would be very hard work to achieve it, but it could be done."

Cllr Kite said: "People want to know they have a local council and it is not fair to the residents to make super-sized authorities.

"This bill will only be good for administration, it won't be good for the people."

by ALISON WHITE and CORINNE McPARTLAND