'Important' to work together on government's devolution plans, says Worcestershire County Council leader
A request was submitted to government last week from the council asking to postpone elections scheduled for May so they could 'fully focus' on plans
Worcestershire County Council's leader Simon Geraghty says it's important all councils in the area work together to come up with a plan for the government's devolution proposals.
The English Devolution White Paper published before Christmas by the Labour government says local governments could see reorganisation for two-tier areas like Worcestershire to form one single council.
It would mean the six district councils would merge with Worcestershire County Council to create one for the area.
A request was also submitted to government last week by Worcestershire County Council asking to postpone elections scheduled for May, so they could 'fully focus' on the idea.
"Working together is really important because we're here to serve residents and make sure Worcestershire gets the best deal it can and maintain the services to the people," he said.
"We've got a straightforward case to government which is actually we have requested the delay of elections to enable us to pick up the pace now and get on with the job of shaping our future."
Leader of Redditch Borough Council Labour's Joe Baker says he welcomes the government's devolution plans which are aimed at joining up the delivery of public services across councils.
"In regards to Redditch, I do welcome the devolution plan and I do think it's important as a council that we have a lot more of a say in where our services are spent locally.
"I do see it as a positive for Redditch, but it has to be done in the correct manner, it has to have the the time spent on it, it has to have people sitting around a table discussing the options that are open to us.
"We've got to sit down with our senior management team and council leaders to work out a plan, see where we are as a service, what we can provide, what we can offer."
The government say their number mission is to "relight the fire of our economy" and "ignite growth in every region".