A ludicrous waste of money?

That is what Eric Pickles last month called setting up more unitary authorities, as he killed off plans to replace several county and district councils.

The new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government wasn't holding back:

"When the priority must be to tackle the immense public deficit we have inherited, it is ludicrous that taxpayers' money is being wasted imposing a council reorganisation."

But that's not the way his Conservative colleagues on Wiltshire Council see it.

"It couldn't have come at a better time for us," leader Jane Scott says of last year's change to a unitary authority.

She is adamant democracy hasn't suffered; few tears are shed for the likes of West Wiltshire District Council.

But finances have benefitted.

The transition cost £17 million; now the savings are coming - £18 million this year, and in years to come it's expected to be even more.

In these tough financial times, she hopes the Secretary of State takes notice:

"I think we can ride this storm in a better position than we ever would have been if we were one county council and four districts."

Some might even suggest sticking with the old system would have been a ludicrous waste of money...