Friday 13 July 2018

Change is afoot - what side are you on? City or County?

Yesterday's meeting of Nottinghamshire County Council was, potentially, a very important meeting for the future of Beeston (and the rest of Broxtowe Borough for that matter).

According to a BBC News report, the County Council voted to take over the powers of the county's district and borough councils to create a county council area based unitary authority. No maps were provided, so I have created my own: 

Click on text/maps below to enlarge. This way the maps can be copied as a block:



Back in the 1980s I was a Labour Party county councillor for the then ward of Portland (covering Highbury Vale, Old Basford and Stockhill) in  Nottingham, which was then just a district council like Broxtowe. It wasn't until 1997 that Nottingham became a unitary council and I, like lots of others, had campaigned long and hard to bring this about.

The county council in my time was riven with petty divisions based on geography. I suspect it is the same now, with decisions about Beeston being made by councillors living 40 miles away in Worksop and Retford. My view then was to go with what local county councillors wanted and not County Hall. I did one term (1981-85) and had a good time with good jobs (chairing East Midlands Airport, the Youth & Community sub-committee and having the arts brief on Leisure Services), but even in the Labour Group there was too much wheeler-dealing for me and I thought it madness that Nottingham had to be part of it. 

Logic says that Nottingham should have a boundary which incorporates the conurbation. Beeston has far more in common with the city than it does with the county and it is a beneficiary of the city in so many ways.

The county council by its decision yesterday has provided Beeston with a golden opportunity to recognise that it is part of Nottingham is so many ways and to contribute to its future development.

I will actively support a counter proposal from the City Council to merge with surrounding urban areas (accepting that this will include rural pockets) and I hope many others will do the same. 

Over coming weeks and months I will take part in the debate. One thing is sure, it will be an issue in next year's Broxtowe Borough Council elections. No change is not an option.

There are caveats. There will have to be local referendas across the county based on localities, not wards*. Maybe 3 choices:

★ No change.
★ Go with the county.
★ Merge with the city.

Historically, such matters have been decided by central government and Parliament.

I would also like all voters to have a say in how the new council of whatever complexion is elected:

★ No change, stay with first past the post voting.
★ Change to the added member system of proportional representation used in Scotland and Wales.
★ A transferable vote system.

*So in the case of Beeston it would be the total vote for Beeston — Attenborough, Bramcote, Chilwell and Stapleford voters would have their own ballots.

It may be 3 or 4 years before change happens and I have not mentioned another option I quite like — Broxtowe and Erewash boroughs merging to create a 'third force' in the Derby–Nottingham conurbation. The councils already work together.

I will watch the debate develop with interest.

In the meantime this link might be of interest: https://lra.le.ac.uk/handle/2381/28203


Dr. Dockerill's thesis is full of maps and tables. The one below relates to 1952 how one one writer saw 'Greater Nottingham' as an area. Nottingham much different to my own take above, except I have included Bestwood and Papplewick as well. 



It is an exhaustive history which actually go back further than the title of the thesis would suggest, as the following map dated 1919 shows:


In other words the debate about how local government is organised in the Nottingham area has been ongoing. The evidence in favour of a larger city/conurbation council area was as cogent in 1919 as it now.

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