The Government is insisting that Suffolk considers unitary councils – single organisations delivering all the services you currently get from district and county councils. It asked the Boundary Committee for England to come up with an idea.
In Suffolk the idea is for Ipswich and Felixstowe to become one unitary ('North Haven'), with another covering the rest of Suffolk. Or, there could be one giant unitary covering all of Suffolk. Both of these Boundary Committee ideas see Lowestoft forced to leave Suffolk and become part of Norfolk.
Forest Heath District Council, St Edmundsbury Borough Council and Waveney District Council all accept North Haven makes sense, but believe the idea that a massive single unitary is nonsense.
One giant unitary means decisions about where your Council Tax is spent being taken in Ipswich by an organisation with limited knowledge of the economic influences and what really matters to people in East and West Suffolk.
Forest Heath, St Edmundsbury and Waveney believe there is a real risk your voice would be lost. Three local unitaries working together would make our areas strong, safe, prosperous – and proud to be part of Suffolk.
The deadline for submissions to the Boundary Committee is 26 September – but it will not be reporting to the Government until the end of December. Then there's four weeks in January 2009 to put views across to the Secretary of State, with the Government's decision due to be published in February.
Make sure your voice is heard!