What you need to know
Local government is changing across the country, and we want to make sure your voice helps shape what comes next.
Last December the government published a white paper on a national programme of devolution and reform to local government.
At the moment, Staffordshire has:
- One county council, which provides and manages services that are linked across the county, like schools, social services and roads.
- Eight district & borough councils, which provide and manage more local services, like helping people with housing, waste collection, planning and more.
- Town and parish councils - find out more about which council does what.
The UK government’s idea is to replace the nine councils in Staffordshire with a smaller number of unitary councils. Unitary councils are bigger councils that provide and manage all services in an area (other than those delivered by town and parish councils).
Staffordshire could be split into a total of two or three unitary councils, with one being in the north combining Staffordshire Moorlands, Stoke & Newcastle-Under-Lyme (see grey area below), and then southern and mid Staffordshire could have one or two unitary councils (see option 1 or two below) - each council will provide all services for the area they are in charge of.
- Option 1 is a single unitary in southern and mid-Staffordshire combining Stafford, South Staffordshire, Cannock, East Staffordshire, Lichfield District and Tamworth (656,800 population)
- Option 2 is two unitary councils in southern and mid-Staffordshire, split west and east as follows:
- Stafford, South Staffordshire and Cannock (347,800 population)
- East Staffordshire, Lichfield District and Tamworth (309,000 population)
The idea of local government reorganisation is to:
- Make services simpler and easier to access
- Help you know who to contact
- Join up services like housing, health, transport and care
- Save money and run more efficiently