Critics argue government reorganisation proposals do not comply with Downing Street’s own criteria for change, including on sustainability grounds.
Council leader Cllr Nick Adams-King, who was re-elected earlier this month, has confirmed the administration will be pursuing a judicial review of restructuring plans as they currently stand. These include spitting the New Forest administrative boundaries, Test Valley, and southern East Hampshire parishes.
Concerns are high that, if enacted, the reorganisation may have a significant impact on local public finances. The proposed Mid-Hampshire authority potentially left in a vulnerable position due to reduced income from business rates and higher costs brought about by demographic changes.
However, the Liberal Democrats have warned that the judicial review is unlikely to achieve much but will almost certainly prove costly to the same public finances. Typically, these investigations will focus on the process involved in decision making in a bid to improve things in the future, but early overturn central government decisions.
‘One of the arguments from the Liberal Democrats is that there isn’t a case to answer. There is absolutely a case. People do not want to be split from the areas in which they live. That is as true in Test Valley and East Hampshire as it is in the New Forest,’ said Cllr Adams-King. ‘It is also vital that we look ahead to future generations and make sure whatever we create is sustainable and is going to work. This current proposal does not work because it leaves the Mid-Hampshire council far too vulnerable.’
Image: Richard Brooker-Protheroe /Unsplash
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