The Government published their agenda for reorganising council structures in England before Christmas and despite their promises, they have not been transparent about the process, or the costs associated with their decisions. With local elections scheduled to take place in May this year, councils are already incurring significant costs to arrange for these to proceed. There is a very real threat that these councils are spending this money for events that will be cancelled in the coming weeks and this will have a knock-on effect as the money could be better spent supporting local services.
To establish the facts, I pressed the Ministers through an Urgent Question today to publish which councils were to be reorganised and when he will make a decision on the elections scheduled for this year.
You can watch my question and the Minister's response here.
