Unitarisation

The government is spreading a common governance structure across the country which means that the councils in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are having to reform into unitary councils i.e. the district and county functions will merge. We will retain the Combined Authority Mayor.

The councils in Cambridgeshire have issued a press release outlining the 3 options currently being considered and there will be a consultation exercise next week. All of them are proposals for 2 unitary councils under the Combined Authority.

The Cambridge Independent has good maps here: https://premium.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/revealed-the-three-options-for-how-cambridgeshire-and-peter-9420947/

Cambridge City joins with South Cambridgeshire in all the options. The options are basically: A, a North/South option so East Cambs joins us; B, just Cambridge City and South Cambs on their own; or C, an East/West option so Huntingdonshire joins us.

The options are being evaluated on the governments criteria which are:

Better service delivery – must improve outcomes for residents

Credible Geography – must align with community identity and economic areas

Democratic engagement – must make sense to the public

Financial sustainability – needs to be large enough to raise enough income to support the population and their social needs

Economy and devolution – must support economic priorities

Other options resulting in 3 unitary councils because they are not considered financial viable.

I would be very interested in residents views. I would only comment at this stage that this is being rushed through at speed at the governments insistence. This does not give us time to consider the possibilities of ironing out inconsistencies such as Newmarket, which is not in Cambridgeshire (currently looks like a keyhole on the map), or consider whether parts of Huntingdonshire and East Cambs are more focused on Cambridge and thus would be better as part of the Southern unitary.