A unitary authority is one council which delivers all local government services. It would work in partnership with those parish and town councils, or community organisations, who want to be responsible for delivering some local services themselves.
In Suffolk at present service delivery is shared between seven borough and district councils and the county council. Some of the things the boroughs and districts are responsible for include parks and open spaces, leisure and culture facilities, keeping your streets clean, food hygiene and safety, helping homeless people, affordable homes, local markets, licensing pubs and clubs, collecting your bins and recycling. And some that the county council is responsible for include education, children and young people, libraries, waste disposal and adult social care.
For more information about unitary status visit electoralcommission.org.uk
The Boundary Committee for England (BCE) is independent of government and is committed to providing fair boundary arrangements for local authority elections.
The BCE is responsible for reviewing local authority electoral arrangements, for example, defining boundaries for local elections and the number of councillors to be elected, and for conducting reviews of local government external boundaries and structure.
In July the BCE published draft proposals for patterns of unitary local government in Norfolk and Suffolk, and called for people in the counties to set out their views on these proposals.
The BCE's draft proposal for Suffolk is for two unitary authorities – one covering Ipswich and Felixstowe and one covering the rest of the county (without Lowestoft). It said that it had also considered a unitary covering all of Suffolk outside of North Haven and Lowestoft.
26 September 2008: deadline for responses to Boundary Committee for England's draft proposals for unitary government in Suffolk. This is when Forest Heath, St Edmundsbury and Waveney will put forward our proposal for three unitaries: East Suffolk, West Suffolk and North Haven.
31 December 2008: Boundary Committee puts forward one recommendation to the Secretary of State.
January 2009: opportunity to send comments to the Secretary of State, Hazel Blears, about the Boundary Committee's recommendation, or alternatives.
February 2009: Secretary of State decision.
2010: new local government arrangements start.