The Minister for Local Government, John Healey, is exactly right when he says there is no single blueprint for unitary reform and that the test is leadership, community empowerment and service improvement (Letter, LGC, 18 September).
Pity then that Andrea Hill of Suffolk County Council hadn't waited to read Mr Healey's sound advice before later in the same issue exerting herself about a single unitary for Suffolk being the only game in town (“Building on solid ground”, LGC, 18 September).
Here in the real world in Suffolk, and standing together with St Edmundsbury and Waveney councils, we know there is a strong argument for the benefits to services and residents of unitary local government.
But we fail to see how a single council based in urban Ipswich with a potential population of around 450,000 people can hope to provide either informed and responsive leadership, or offer local people a real say in local affairs.
And the best value argument is a red herring. It would be hard not to make significant savings in a unitary model, but it's value for money that counts – and what value do local people get from a cheap but remote and unresponsive giant council?
That's why we are proposing a sensible and practical split between new West Suffolk and East Suffolk unitaries – both big enough to have the capacity to deliver but local enough to be close to their communities in all senses of that phrase.
We agree with Ms Hill that local government in Suffolk needs to be exceptional. Exceptionally local. Exceptionally responsive. And exceptionally in touch.
Councillor Geoffrey Jaggard
Leader, Forest Heath District Council
19 September 2008