Ashfield District Council leader's plea to county leader for local authority to be saved

Coun Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind) was reacting to news of fresh concerns following a leaked Whitehall report suggesting plans for a local government ‘levelling up’ overhaul.

A report by The Independent said the Government plans to ‘radically alter’ the structure of local government in England, replacing it with a single-tier, mayoral style system.

This is according to a draft of the government’s levelling up white paper and would mean councils like Ashfield will be scrapped and replaced with one ‘super council’.

Coun Zadrozny, who also leads the Independents group at County Hall, claimed that if the leak was true – it would spell the end for councils like Ashfield and lead to heavy job losses.

In his open letter to Coun Bradley, Coun Zadrozny said: “The pandemic showed the importance of localised service delivery.

"Nottinghamshire County Council simply couldn’t have coped without the district and borough councils – something that your senior leadership team has acknowledged.

"Now, for borough and district councils to be facing an existential crisis – with a huge local government reorganisation at a time when we are seeing a rise in cases of the omnicom variant of Covid-19 is as disgraceful as it is ill-timed.”

Coun Bradley has yet to respond to urgent letter except to suggest that this was the first he had heard of Government plans.

"Coun Zadrozny continued, “I find it very difficult to believe that the first Ben Bradley heard of plans to scrap plans was an article in national newspaper.

"If that is true – the only conclusion I can come to is that he doesn’t have even a modicum of influence in Government.

"I have asked for assurances from him that he will keep his word and manifesto commitment to retain local councils.

"In the run up to the elections in May, he claimed that councils like Ashfield were safe in his hands.

"After reading the leak, I’m not so sure.

"I will be speaking to council leaders across Nottinghamshire to work out a plan of action.

"The campaign to save our councils starts now.”