Have your say on the Local Government Review

Waveney District Council Leader Mark Bee and Cllr Nick Webb, Deputy Leader of the Waveney Labour Group have reacted with dismay to today’s announcement by the Boundary Committee of England (BCE), which would see the town of Lowestoft effectively become part of Norfolk.

The BCE have spent four months considering proposals for the reorganisation of local government in Suffolk and Norfolk and is recommending that Waveney is split, sending Lowestoft in to a giant Norfolk unitary authority and leaving the rest of the district as part of a rural unitary authority stretching from Southwold to Newmarket. Meanwhile Ipswich and Felixstowe would merge to form its own unitary authority.

Cllr Bee said: “A whole range of options and ideas were put to the BCE by people who understand Suffolk, understand Waveney and understand how services should be delivered to these communities.

“And yet, the BCE have ignored everything we have told them to produce a messy nonsense that will only deliver confusion and which has no feel whatsoever for the natural, different areas of Suffolk and Norfolk. I said six months ago that the annexing of Lowestoft to Norfolk was a very real possibility and we simply will not stand for it.

Cllr Webb added: “Nobody requested this, nobody recommended it. It’s the worst of all worlds and makes a mockery of the whole process. A fudge that asks more questions than it answers.”

A 12-week period of consultation now gets underway and Cllr Bee believes the people of Waveney will have plenty to say on the matter.
 
He said: “Who could possibly support a proposal to have Lowestoft’s affairs run out of Norwich by a huge authority, serving nigh on 900,000 singly determined to meet the needs of Norfolk communities? People have to stand up to this and tell the BCE that Lowestoft is in Suffolk and is not a suburb of Norwich. Lowestoft does not share the same needs and aspiration as Kings Lynn and Thetford.

“As for the rest of Waveney, a geographical area with a keen sense of its own identity is swallowed up in another giant authority that cares not for Waveney’s market towns.”

The Committee said it reached its draft proposals based on five criteria – affordability, value for money services, neighbourhood empowerment and engagement, broad cross section of support, and strategic leadership.

Cllr Webb continued: “These supposed sacred criteria simply don’t stand up. How can these enormous new councils be locally accountable? Where is the broad cross section of support? Neighbourhoods aren’t being empowered by these proposals, they’re being ignored.”

Four of the eight councils, including Suffolk Coastal, in Suffolk had backed proposals for three unitaries to be created, offering locally accountable, strategically powerful new councils, in East, West and Ipswich, while two others had backed at least an East/West split to take account of the differing challenges and needs of the communities of Suffolk.

Cllr Bee added: “There has been a consensus across Suffolk and yet this has been ignored and dismissed. The people of Lowestoft do not want to be part of Norfolk and I’m pretty sure Norfolk are perfectly happy as they are. This arbitrary destruction of county boundaries will not be taken lying down and I would implore the people of Waveney to express their views in no uncertain terms.

“We currently enjoy stable, accountable local government in Suffolk, which reflects the different needs of each community. What is so wrong with our current arrangements that such a disastrous alternative is being sought? These proposals are not the future, but a backward step and if this is what we have in store, I would far rather things were left as they are – which I believe reflects the public mood.”

Cllr Webb added: “I still don’t necessarily believe that ‘Yartoft’ is dead in the water. This period of consultation will give people the opportunity to have their say and I will not give up pushing for what I believe is right for Waveney.”

Responses to the draft proposals can be made by filling in an online form at www.boundarycommittee.org.uk  or email reviews@boundarycommittee.org.uk  or in writing to Review Manager (Norfolk and Suffolk Review), The Boundary Committee for England, Trevelyan House, Great Peter Street, London SW1P 2HW. The period for response closes on 26 September.


Boundary Committee Review - in a nutshell
Submitted concepts for Suffolk & Waveney