‘A shocking manipulation': Lib Dems condemn Labour stitch-up for council reorganisation

The government has announced that there will be four unitary councils for Hertfordshire. Any reorganisation would have been expensive and disruptive but splitting Hertfordshire in four will be the most expensive and most disruptive option.

Steve Jarvis, Liberal Democrat leader of Herts County Council said, “When the government began this process it said it was focused on devolution - transferring money and power from Westminster and Whitehall to communities across Hertfordshire and the rest of England but now they are concentrating on a reorganisation that nobody asked for and which will take many years to deliver any benefit for Hertfordshire’s people. 

 “Splitting the teams that deliver care for the elderly and disabled, the teams who support children with SEND and the teams fix our roads into four will make it harder and more expensive to deliver these services. 

“This will do nothing to create more special school places or fix more potholes but it will cost the council taxpayers of Hertfordshire more. Projections show that the new Central Herts Council will be bankrupt from the day it is created. 

“The government has chosen the arrangements that are best for the Labour party, not those that are best for the communities in Hertfordshire. In parts of the county they are dividing districts, splitting communities with gerrymandered boundaries chosen by Labour in a desperate attempt to win the new Central Herts unitary.

“It is shocking that the government is planning to manipulate local government in Hertfordshire in this way.”