Welcome to the Towards One Council Website, a one stop shop for all news relating to the transition to one council for Wiltshire.
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The Story So Far
Background
The bid to become One Council was first submitted by Wiltshire County Council in response to a central government white paper entitled ‘Strong and Prosperous Communities’. This was an invitation to all councils in areas made up of more than one council, such as county, borough and district, to put forward bids to create a new single or 'unitary' council.
On October 31st 2007 the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill received royal assent. This means that the legislative framework is now in place to create unitary authorities. Nine bids from around the country (including Wiltshire) have been minded to be approved by the Secretary of State.
Following the announcement that Wiltshire would move to a unitary council, the Department for Communities and Local Government produced a document for consultation entitled 'Council's Proposal for Unitary Local Government - An Approach to Implementation'.
Read ‘Council’s Proposal for Unitary Local Government’
Read the council’s response to this document
Wiltshire County Council's bid
Parliamentary Orders
Statutory Orders had to be considered and passed by the Houses of Parliament before the new authority can be implemented. These are a set of 'rules' that determine:
- When the elections will be
- What the governance arrangements will be to manage the transition
- How staff will be transferred to the new authority
- How the five organisations will be expected to work together up to the new authority coming into being
Discussions took place between the Department of Communities and Local Government and the five Chief Executives regarding the detail of these ‘rules’.
The order creating One Council for Wiltshire has completed its passage through both Houses of Parliament and the local government minister has formally made the order. This means that the Wiltshire Council will come into being on 1 April 2009. Elections will be held a month later, on new boundaries to be recommended by the Boundary Committee.