North East councils shake up to make savings

Mar 29 2009 by Paul James, Sunday Sun

THE BIGGEST town hall shake-up for decades will be launched this week.

Critics say April Fools’ Day is an especially apt day for new super councils to take over in Northumberland and County Durham . . . and are still adamant that axing the 13 district councils was the wrong thing to do.

But 15 months have now passed since the Government pushed the button on the changeover and, like it or not, the people of both counties will get their new councils on Wednesday.

After the switch there will be less than a third of the current number of councillors across the two counties, as a single council will now be in charge of all services, instead of two.

The two new authorities have pledged to save more than £30m in their first year of existence, as they take over budgets of £1bn in County Durham and £450m in Northumberland.

And rate payers across both counties will now pay the same council tax as their neighbours from the previous council areas, where in the past someone from Alnwick was paying a different amount to someone from Morpeth, someone from Consett different to a friend in Sedgefield.

The differences in the previous rates were such that the new council tax will mean an increase of 4.75per cent for some, and a reduction of almost 1pc for others.

Local Government Minister John Healey has been championing the new authorities, with a total of 44 councils in England being replaced by nine, charged with everything from cleaning up graffiti to helping tenants to cutting down on CO2 emissions.