Say what you think about reorganisation of councils

A GROUP of 12 of the 15 councils in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, including Rushmoor Borough Council and Hart District Council, are collaborating on proposals for future new councils that will provide all services, and are now asking residents to have their say.

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The Government wants to change the current ‘two-tier’ council structure in most of the county, where residents have services delivered by both Hampshire County Council and district or borough councils. Three other areas, Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight, already have single councils, known as unitary authorities, that provide all local services.

The Government has asked councils to propose how they could join their areas together to form new councils that would each be responsible for all local services in that area. In response, Rushmoor and Hart have been working on developing options that would work best for their residents, businesses and wider community. The other councils: are Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Eastleigh Borough Council, Fareham Borough Council, Havant Borough Council, Isle of Wight Council, New Forest District Council, Portsmouth City Council, Southampton City Council, Test Valley Borough Council and Winchester City Council.

Together, they are working on options that would replace the current 15 councils with four new unitary authorities on the mainland, keeping the Isle of Wight as its own unitary council as it currently is.