‘Does size matter?' we asked representatives from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) at our recent ‘listening meeting'.This involved four of the seven principal councils in Gloucestershire advocating the creation of one unitary council. The other two reorganisation proposals entail the creation of two unitaries below the 500,000 population size stated in the Government's guiding criteria; one unitary council for Gloucestershire would have 650,000 people.
The decisions didn't appear to be based on the argument that smaller councils are more responsive to local communities than larger ones, which is more about the adopted operating model. In Gloucestershire we have worked hard on effective neighbourhood partnership arrangements common to all three reorganisation proposals.
