Have your say on the biggest change to Worcestershire councils in 50 years and follow-up to Wychavon’s Corporate Peer Challenge
Dear all
We are writing to invite you to take part in our survey on local government reorganisation in Worcestershire and to share feedback from our Corporate Peer Challenge with you.
Shape Worcestershire: local government reorganisation
As you will be aware, the Government intends to sweep away all 21 two-tier council areas in England in favour of creating unitary councils. This represents the most significant change to how councils are structured, and services are delivered in the county in over 50 years.
There are currently two options being considered for Worcestershire:
- Replace all councils with one unitary council
This would replace the county council and six district, city and borough councils with just one council for the whole of Worcestershire. It would provide all services from collecting bins to school admissions. The new council would geographically cover the same areas as Worcestershire County Council does now. - Replace all councils with two unitary councils
This means the county would be split into two new councils with one for the north of the county and one for the south of the county. Each one would be responsible for all services in their part of the county.
Councillors will be asked in the autumn to decide which of the two options to work up in more detail and submit to the Government by 28 November 2025.
To support councillors to make this decision, we are seeking views from residents, town and parish councils, voluntary and community organisations, businesses and other partners we work with on how local services should be delivered in future.
Our dedicated microsite www.shapeworcestershire.org has more information and a link to the survey, which is open until 29 June. We encourage you to take part.
You can choose to either submit a single response on behalf of your parish or town council or share the survey link with individual councillors so they can respond personally as residents or submit both. The survey is open until 29 June, and we encourage as many of you as possible to take part.
As you know we are holding an event for Wychavon parish and town councils on local government reorganisation on Monday 23 June. I will send you more details about that separately. If there are particular aspects you would like us to cover during the event please let me know as soon as possible
Wychavon’s Corporate Peer Challenge feedback and action plan
Some of your councils were involved in our Corporate Peer Challenge in October 2024. Earlier this year we received the peer team’s feedback report setting out their findings and recommendations to help us progress from ‘good to great’. You can read the team’s report on our website here Corporate Peer Challenge – Wychavon District Council.
We also wanted to share with you the action plan we have developed in response to the peer team’s feedback and recommendations. You can read the action plan here.
The peer team will revisit us towards the end of September to assess our progress with implementing its recommendations.
Thank you once again to those who were part of our Peer Challenge and for your valuable contribution to the process. We hope you will all take the opportunity to contribute to the important conversation about the future of Worcestershire councils.
Kind regards
Tracy
Tracy Perkins
Engagement Officer
01386 565517
www.wychavon.gov.uk