Agenda item

(Voting: 37 in favour, 11 against, 0 abstentions)

The Leader of Council, as Portfolio Holder for Strategy and Housing, introduced two representatives from PA Consulting who gave a short presentation on the response to the One Somerset proposal.  She outlined the history of the unitary authority proposal and the submission by the District Councils which had been agreed by Council in December 2020.  The Government were consulting on the two proposals and that would conclude on 19^th April. 

Mr Luke Muir and Clare Tew of PA Consulting made a short presentation on the response to the One Somerset proposal.  They outlined the approach to writing the response, the methodology, the evidence and the analysis.  (slides attached)

In response to questions,

·         The basis for the decision by the Secretary of State was not yet known.

·         Central Government Departments were likely to have an established process for scoring and reviewing the business cases and it was likely they would be looking at the tests sent to the District Councils and would measure the effectiveness of each in a structured and robust way.  They would also be looking for evidence to support the claims made in the business cases.

·         There would be a rational given along with the decision made but the full analysis may not be published in full.

·         The One Somerset business case at point 6.5 on page 78 proposed 100 councillors in their new unitary authority, but, this would be subject to the Boundary Commission for England review to determine.

·         In the One Somerset business case, the intention was to base the Local Community Networks around the existing Primary Care Networks, but a localist approach would involve talking to local communities about the projects they wished to take on and base the Local Community Networks around those.

·         There was an appendix to the One Somerset business case which detailed the methodology and findings but this was not available in relation to the public consultation survey conducted. 

During discussion, the Leader of Council confirmed that:-

·         the full report and appendix would be submitted as the response to the MHCLG. 

·         It was evident that there was no ambitious devolution deal in the One Somerset business case which was part of economic growth. 

·         Part of the Stronger Somerset business case was the two unitary authorities joining with others to form a combined authority.to achieve a devolution deal. 

·         North Somerset and BANES may be interested in joining a combined authority.

·         All the Somerset District Councils were considering the same report and some had already agreed it, therefore any changes proposed would need to be checked with the other authorities.

During discussion the following points were made:

·         There were a number of errors in the report on the One Somerset proposal.

·         The Conservative Group would be making their own representations to the Secretary of State on the consultation proposals.

The Leader of Council thanked the two representatives from PA Consulting for attending the Council meeting and for answering Members questions.  She proposed the recommendations and they were seconded by Councillor Peter Seib.  A named vote was taken and the recommendation was confirmed by 36 votes in favour, 11 against and 0 abstentions.

(Voting: 36 in favour, 11 against, 0 abstentions)