Frequently asked questions about One Council for Shropshire

The Government has said that the 6 Shropshire councils will merge to make one new council delivering services for the whole county.

The councils that will merge are: Shropshire County Council, Bridgnorth District Council, North Shropshire District Council, Oswestry Borough Council, Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council and South Shropshire District Council.

Here we answer some of your questions on what’s happening.

When will the new council come in?

The new council for Shropshire begins on 1 April, 2009 and elections will be held in May 2009.

What will the new council be called?

At the Implementation Executive meeting on 29 February 2008 it was decided that the new council will be called Shropshire Council.

Who makes the decisions?

29 councillors from all six councils make up a group called the Implementation Executive (IE). This group is chaired by the leader of Shropshire County Council, Malcolm Pate. This Implementation Executive meets every six weeks to make key decisions about planning for the transition.

The meetings for this decision-making process are being held in public. Agendas and minutes are published and members of the public and the press can attend.

There are also 27 officer teams made up from across all the councils, which are also working together to support the Executive for a smooth transition.

What will happen to the staff at the current six councils?

Staff from the current 6 councils will transfer to the new council. We will be using the talents, skills, knowledge and experience from the staff across the councils to provide the services for the one council.

The Government expects the new council to approach senior appointments on the basis that this is a new authority with new roles. It therefore envisages that Chief executives will be appointed by means of open competition.

Will there be redundancies?

The immediate move to the new council assumes a loss of 182 posts (not people) of which 57 people are costed to take voluntary severance or retirement. This is considered to be only a small proportion of our natural turnover. The process will be carefully managed to minimise the impact on staff. Staff will be treated fairly and equally, regardless of which council they currently work for.

How will the new council look on the ground?

There will still be local offices, and people using council services in any part of Shropshire will not notice much difference on day one of the new council. It will be very much a case of 'business as usual' for the council's customers. Gradually there is likely to be a rationalisation of council offices and other buildings, to ensure efficiency and best value for money for Shropshire taxpayers. But key to any changes will making sure that people can access services where they live, not in a remote council headquarters.

Will Shirehall have to expand and what will happen to the local district and borough offices?

There are no plans to expand Shirehall and there are no plans to centralise all services in Shrewsbury. It is too early to say exactly what would happen to all the council offices and changes will happen over a period of time. But the new council will be committed to maintaining a local presence throughout the communities of Shropshire.

How will I benefit?

From day one, you will not see a huge difference on the ground. The new council will continue to work hard to ensure high-quality services are delivered at good value for money. By joining all six offices into one council, we are able to make efficiency savings across various departments. The savings will keep council tax increases low.

The aim is to improve services by making them more joined-up and uniform across the county.

By creating a number of local joint meetings where unitary councillors and parish councillors will have equal votes, it will also give people a better say about the council services which are delivered in their community. Access to services is also being improved for people in all the market towns and more remote locations in the county.

What are the main advantages of moving to a single council?

We believe that a single Shropshire Council will lead to:

• strong strategic leadership
• greater local decision-making
• significant savings to the council tax payer
• improved services

Will the public have a say in council decisions?

There will be 27 local committees across Shropshire. We are already piloting these committees in 5 areas (see the link on this page to local meetings). The committees will be able to make decisions about the local delivery of a range of services, such as how the local discretional highways budget is spent. They will be able to call council officers or councillors to account on local service delivery. And they will have a delegated budget to spend on local priorities. Local people will be encouraged to have their say, and influence the decision-making at these meetings – as well as being a formal consultation route for the new council. Follow the menu link to 'Background to One Council for Shropshire' for more detail about how these committees will work and the type of decisions that they could take.

We are also working on partnership structures across the three areas of north, central and south Shropshire, to ensure we work from very local to countywide. These will largely cover the three main parliamentary constituency areas.

How will services be improved?

The new council will provide the basis for significant improvements in major areas of service delivery through simpler and better access to services, an increased user-focus and more efficient delivery on the ground. The new council will deliver, for example:

• more and better affordable housing across the whole county
• cleaner streets and more litter picking
• improvements in street lighting
• one concessionary travel scheme for the whole county
• improved benefits advice

How much will it cost to reorganise all the councils into one council?

We estimate that the cost of reorganisation will be £9.8m. This will be a once-only cost, which can be paid for within three years of a new council being created. This is a shorter period than the five years permitted by the Government in their invitation to bid for unitary council status.

In the first four years how much will you save and what will you do with these savings?

We believe we will save £7.8m a year, every year, from administration and governance, and a further £2m each year from joining up direct services. £9.8m savings every year for four years amounts to £39.2m.

Each year £4.5m will be used to reduce council tax increases, £0.9m will be devolved to Local Area Committees around the county to spend on local issues, and £4.4m will be used to improve service delivery to the level of the best across the county.

How will the proposal affect my council tax? I understand that not everyone pays the same?

Each district and borough council presently charges a different level of council tax. Under the new council it will be necessary to equalise council tax so that everyone pays the same. During the period of equalisation (the first three years) we estimate that council tax levels will not rise by more than 3.5 per cent, which would be the lowest levels of council tax rise for Shropshire County Council for 10 years. Some areas will see increases of even less than this.

What will happen to the town and parish councils?

There will be no change to existing town and parish councils, either to their boundaries or their powers. The new unitary council will work closely with the Shropshire Association of Local Councils to develop even stronger relationships between the unitary council and parish councils, and will hold discussions with those which express an interest in taking on the local delivery of appropriate services. Town and parish councillors will also have equal votes with unitary councillors at the local meetings (see a previous answer).

What about a town council for Shrewsbury?

Establishing a town council for Shrewsbury is clearly an important task. It is being approached in a considered way, with the participation of all parties involved.