Letters sent hoping to limit public consultation

Suffolk County Council's leader Matthew Hicks and chief executive Nicola Beach wrote in secret to the government trying to prevent the proposal for three new councils in Suffolk going to public consultation.

The letters only surfaced after they were obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request by the BBC.

The Conservative-run authority supports one unitary council for Suffolk under local government reorganisation. The five district and borough councils have proposed an option for three separate unitary authorities.

A joint statement from those councils' five leaders said they were unaware of the letters and "the details coming to light are disappointing but not unexpected".

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is due to announce later this month how they want Suffolk to progress under local government reorganisation (LGR).

The two-tier system of county and district/borough councils will be replaced with a unitary one-tier system where one council provides all the services in its area.

The MHCLG will announce if Suffolk will have:

• one unitary council covering the whole county
• three unitary councils, broadly covering west Suffolk, east and mid Suffolk, and the Ipswich/Felixstowe areas

In November, Hicks had written to Alison McGovern, the Minister for Local Government and Homelessness, and said: "The three-unitary council proposal for Suffolk is not a fully formed, costed, or evidenced business case.

He added: "I do not believe the three-unitary council proposal should proceed to public consultation."

Beach is due to step down from her role this month.

She wrote to senior staff at the MHCLG the day before Hicks's letter to central government.

In her letter it said: "Given the seriousness of LGR, I must highlight these concerns and urge you, in the strongest possible terms, not to proceed to public consultation on the 3UA [three unitary authorities] business case until you are absolutely satisfied that it is deliverable, credible, legal, and safe."

McGovern responded to Hicks's letter on 25 November and said the department had "noted their concerns" but said it would be "inappropriate for her to comment at this stage or give a view on specific unitary proposals".

The government put both one- and three-council proposals out to public consultation in December.

The five district and borough leaders include Ipswich Borough Council's Labour leader Neil Macdonald, Babergh's Independent leader John Ward, Mid Suffolk Council's Green party leader Andy Mellen, East Suffolk Council's Green Party leader Caroline Topping and Cliff Waterman, who is the Labour leader of West Suffolk Council.

None of them were told about the letters until the BBC approached them for comment.

Their statement said: "Our proposal was supported by independent experts, including KPMG and the Social Care Institute for Excellence. To suggest that it was anything other than professional, well‑considered, and realistic is entirely ludicrous.

"District and borough councils have engaged in the local government reorganisation process professionally, transparently and in good faith from the outset.

"Unfortunately, that has not been reflected in the approach taken by Suffolk County Council, whose stance throughout has frequently been combative rather than collaborative."

Responding to the district and borough council leaders' statement, Richard Rout, Suffolk County Council's cabinet member for devolution and local government reform, said: "I want to make it clear that we did not write to government trying to stop the public consultation on the three-council proposal.

"We simply wanted to make sure the government only proceeded to consultation on options that were deliverable, credible, and safe.

"In our opinion, the three-council proposal is none of these things."

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