Lincolnshire Liberal Democrats Policy on Local Government

Why change the system in Lincolnshire?

Is it really value for money to have eight Chief Executives and Chief Financial Directors (10 if we include the two Lincolnshire unitary Councils) , for example, or to have one authority responsible for Planning and another for Highways, or one authority responsible for Social Care and another for social housing? Is it right to have well over half of our county councillors also sitting on District Councils, when conflicts of interest could easily occur? A switch to unitary authorities would in the long run save a great deal of money and alleviate much of the confusion in the publics mind as to which council does what.

What about the Town and Parish Councils?

They would remain and their role could be enhanced. Towns such as Grantham and Spalding could join the other major towns in Lincolnshire with having a democratically elected Town Council as well. With the Power of Competence bestowed on them they could take over more responsibility from any unitary authority. Town/cities like Lincoln and Boston could retain many of their current responsibilities through the same process.

A Solution for Lincolnshire

We feel that our county would benefit from a change in structure. There are various permutations, ranging from an option to turn the whole of Lincolnshire into one massive Unitary Authority, which we would resist, to options which would envisage the creation of up to four Unitary Authorities
as well as a radical proposal to link the two Unitary Authorities south of the River Humber with the rest of Lincolnshire to create unitary governance from the Humber to the Wash.

The next steps

Our citizens need to be made aware that there could be a better way to run local government and central government needs to take note of this fact if we are to avoid even more massive cuts in these difficult financial time.