Witham MP Priti Patel has slammed the Government's plans for reorganising local government structures in Essex. The Labour Government has imposed a reorganisation which will mean Essex County Council being broken up and five new councils established. The costs of the reorganisation will run into the tens of millions pounds, but the Government is not providing funds to cover these costs in full, leaving council taxpayers exposed.
These changes bring about uncertainty on the future of local services, including bin collections, highways repairs, libraries and social and care service. They follow the Government cutting and squeezing council funding for parts of Essex, cutting education budgets, cancelling the A12 Widening Scheme and imposing huge new housing targets putting our countryside at risk. Priti said:
“Labour is destroying Essex with these costly changes to local government structures. They are undermining democracy, putting local services at risk, and creating uncertainty and concern. The services we all rely on – from education, to adult social care to fixing the road network to bin collections – will now be at risk of being cut and made worse under these changes. Keir Starmer and Labour are undermining local services and making hard-pressed taxpayers pay more for this reorganisation.”
“This has been forced on our County by a Government that doesn’t care about Essex, cuts funding and taxes us all more.”
