REFORM UK LEADERS HAVE PUT FORWARD PREFERRED LGR PLAN

'The east-west option simply stacks up better than any alternative'

- By PHIL CORRIGAN Local Democracy Reporter

SPLITTING Staffordshire into eastern and western councils ‘stacks up better’ than any other option, council leaders insist.

Cabinet members at Reform Uk-led Staffordshire County Council have voted to support the authority's proposal for local government reorganisation (LGR), which would see the 10 existing councils replaced by two unitary authorities covering the east and the west.

Critics say the model, which would merge Stoke-on-Trent with Lichfield and Tamworth in the eastern unitary while keeping it separate from neighbouring Newcastle, makes little geographical sense. Most councils in Staffordshire are supporting models that involve some sort of north-south split instead.