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Three-way merger between Breckland, Great Yarmouth and South Holland councils is a step closer
By DAISY WALLAGE
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
5:31 PM
A three-way merger between Breckland, Great Yarmouth and South Holland councils is a step closer tonight.
Breckland and South Holland, based in Spalding, have been working closely under a single management team and chief executive for about 18 months, saving an estimated £1m in costs between them.
Great Yarmouth Council announced it was entering talks to create a three-way partnership last summer and all three council are now exploring in detail the implications of joining forces.
Councillors in Great Yarmouth agreed to the cost-saving merger in principle last week and Breckland followed suite at a cabinet meeting today (Tuesday).
Breckland leader William Nunn said: “We were always confident that our successful shared management arrangement could be extended over a larger number of authorities and I look forward to welcoming Great Yarmouth Borough Council into the partnership.
“Breckland will remain an autonomous, independent organisation – a separate and accountable body focused on delivering quality services to our residents. By widening the top shared management team, we will make further savings and gain from having access to a wider range of professional managers.
“We still have a long way to go to achieve the savings needed and have some very difficult decisions ahead. Nothing will be decided before we have heard the views of residents and we will hold a series of open meetings later this year to find out which money saving or income generating measures they think we should implement.”
Cabinet members at South Holland are due to discuss the shared management arrangement at a meeting on February 28.
Any decisions taken at cabinet will need to go to full council for final approval.
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14 comments
Lets have the new high power exec on 45K from the JPH run this on his days off after all if the JPH is just a 3 day week, job share and put the extra 2 in here for the full working week.
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Paul Morley
Friday, February 17, 2012
If it was teaming up with neighbouring authorities like Lowestoft and Norwich there might be some merit in collaboration. South Holland and Breckland don't cut it.
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Mick Castle
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Go back 2 years and Councils like Breckland were spending thousands of pounds of public money to prevent Unitary Councils. Sheer hypocrisy! And now they are creating "frankenstein" Council mergers that defy geography. Hopefully the public will boot them all out over the next couple of years.
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Mick Castle
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Amalgamation does not make the "Ambulance services" any better and will not make these councils any better or efficient. It`s empire building with no one to take the can.
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bazza
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Seems like a good idea to me. Huge staff cuts and financial savings. I dont see how absent representation will effect gy at all, the current band of thieves haven't.really performed, so its time for change. With the new technologies available I think larger responsibilities can be handled successfully. nice to see the change, and no concern on performance as there is little or none now.
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Paul Morley
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
What a fraudulent idea.
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wes1975
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
"Nothing will be decided before we have heard the views of residents" . . . . . . Ha ha - that's what the residents of West Norfolk were told about the Tory Wheelabrator Incinerator - then their views were totally ignored!!
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Norfolk and Good
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
"How on earth can this be sensible for Great Yarmouth? It makes no sense at all to have an absentee Chief Executive based in Lincolshire" Yarmouth has an overpaid Chief Exec where nobody knows what he does from one day to the next ?
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"V"
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Mr. Castle with an absentee chief executive it’s a good scheme to ensure residents will never get the truth into why our present GYBC Officers made such an appalling deal over the Outer Harbour
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John L Cooper
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
or an absentee Chief Exec based in Norfolk???
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Bert
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
What on earth is the matter with Gt Yarmouth council? They have made some daft decisions in the recent past but this must rank as the silliest of them all. The borough of Gt Yarmouth is quite different from the agricultural hinterlands of Breckland and South Holland. Neither of which we even share a boundary with. It`a a pity the people who dreamt this one up didn`t speak to the locals first before wasting time and energy and our money on this harebrained idea.
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BG
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
"Nothing will be decided before we have heard the views of residents and we will hold a series of open meetings later this year to find out which money saving or income generating measures they think we should implement.” Well thats good news then - maybe it would have been a good idea to ask the views of residents before entering into talks though as it makes it sound as if Great Yarmouth Council have spent a lot of time and energy on this plan. What happens if the majority think its a waste of time?
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Mrs Meldrew
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
How on earth can this be sensible for Great Yarmouth? It makes no sense at all to have an absentee Chief Executive based in Lincolshire
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Mick Castle
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
It's not "April Fools Day" yet but our political masters at Yarmouth Town Hall are still beavering away with their plan to share a Chief Executive and all Senior Officers with South Holland in Lincolnshire and Breckland in South West Norfolk. Haven't they learnt a thing since the failure of their ill-fated wholesale merger plans initially with North Norfolk and then seriously embarassingly with South Norfolk? This is not smart politics - although Steve Ames and Co may fancy the prospect of "cosying up" permanently with two solidly Conservative Councils - South Holland for example has no Labour Councillors and Breckland just 4. Don't let them do it!
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Mick Castle
Tuesday, February 14, 2012