Agenda and minutes

The Mayor welcomed all those present to the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors Brandon Clayton and Rita Rogers.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

Councillors Matthew Dormer, Andrew Fry and Craig Warhurst declared other disclosable interests in Minute Item No. 78 – Local Government Reorganisation – Interim Plan Proposals for Worcestershire – Redditch - in their capacity as Worcestershire County Councillors.  They remained present throughout the debate in respect of this item and voted thereon.

RESOLVED that

the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 24^th February 2025 be approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Mayor.

The Leader presented a report concerning Local Government Reorganisation interim plan proposals for Worcestershire and in doing so higlighted that the interim plan had been attached at Appendix 5 to the report.

Council was informed that the Government’s English Devolution White Paper had introduced a requirement for all remaining two-tier authority areas to become unitary authorities in a process of Local Government Reorganisation.  There was no alternative option to this reorganisation and Members were asked to note that it was therefore essential that the Council considered the options available carefully.

Clarification was provided that there were three potential options that had been identified as available for Local Government Reorganisation locally, in terms of proposals for consideration at this interim stage in the process:

·             Option 1 – One Unitary Authority for the whole of Worcestershire (covering the full area served by Worcestershire County Council and the six District Councils in the county).

·             Option 2 – Two Unitary Authorities, one for North Worcestershire (covering the footprint of Redditch Borough, Bromsgrove District and Wyre Forest District Councils) and one for South Worcestershire (covering the footprint of Malvern Hills District, Worcester City and Wychavon District Councils).

·             Option 3 – Exploring both models, in terms of both a single Unitary Authority and two Unitary Authorities in Worcestershire (representing the areas outlined in Options 1 and 2 above).

The Government had required that Councils in a two-tier authority area, like Worcestershire, should work together to develop proposals for Local Government Reorganisation in their locality.  Councils were required to submit interim proposals to the Government by 21^st March 2025.  The Leader had been meeting with the other Leaders of Councils in Worcestershire by attending meetings of the Worcestershire Leaders’ Board alongside the Chief Executive Officers of those Councils.  At those meetings, the Leader had been highlighting his view that both potential models of reorganisation should be investigated further, in line with Option 3. 

Confirmation was provided that Worcestershire County Council had unilaterally commissioned work from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).  A copy of this paper had been published for Redditch Borough Councillors’ consideration in a Background Papers pack for the meeting.  However, Members were asked to note that this document did not form part of the interim response that had been agreed by Leaders at meetings of the Worcestershire Leaders’ Board.  The assumptions underpinning this work had not been shared with District Councils by Worcestershire County Council, despite requests to do so.  When the paper had been presented at a recent meeting of Worcestershire Leaders’ Board, concerns had been raised about the fact that the assumptions had not been shared and the Leader confirmed that he had also raised concerns that he felt that the content appeared to be biased in favour of a single Unitary Authority for Worcestershire.  The Leader advised that he had asked Officers at Redditch Borough Council to commission a separate piece of work to undertake an independent analysis and thereby hopefully provide a clearer picture of the implications of the different available models.

Reference  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

To consider any additional items exceptionally agreed by the Mayor as Urgent Business in accordance with the powers vested in him by virtue of Section 100(B)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

(This power should be exercised only in cases where there are genuinely special circumstances which require consideration of an item which has not previously been published on the Order of Business for the meeting.)

There was no urgent business for consideration at this meeting.

Prior to closing the meeting, the Mayor highlighted that former Councillor and former Mayor of the Borough of Redditch, Mrs Madge Tillsley MBE, had sadly passed away since the previous meeting of Council.  The Mayor led Members in paying tribute to Mrs Tillsley by observing a minute’s silence in her honour.