Warwickshire County Council have today approved an amended version of the cabinet's proposed Devolution and Local Government Reform proposal

The full county council met today to discuss radical changes to local government in Warwickshire, to replace the current two-tier system. Discussions come ahead of the Government's White Paper bill which will propose the greatest degree in local government reform for nearly fifty years.

Today's meeting comes as the next step in an ongoing discussion as to whether Warwickshire County Council should submit a recommendation for reform to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government when the White Paper is announced.

The proposal by WCC would see Kenilworth's local body – Warwick District Council – be dissolved alongside the other district and borough councils, and all local government decisions for the county being centralised to a single, or two individual authorities.

The cabinet unanimously approved the recommendation for the proposed unitary body at the end of August, thus leading to today's meeting.

The cabinet had commissioned a report by PWC which put forward three different options for local government reform in Warwickshire, with the overwhelming recommendation be to form a single unitary authority.

The process of this decision-making by Warwickshire County Council has been rebuked by all five of the district and borough councils. The quintet yesterday released a statement about their own report, commissioned by Deloitte, which recommended a North-South divide for local government reform in Warwickshire.

This recommendation would see control of Kenilworth's governance, in the form of the Warwickshire District Council, come under the remit of a new South Warwickshire Council, which would also encompass Stratford.

WCC leader Cllr Izzi Seccombe said at the start of the meeting it was clear "both reports endorse that the current model is broken."

This sentiment was echoed across the full council. County council members heard from across the political parties, and across the districts, that reform in some guise was needed, although there was clear criticism still of the process that the decision-making had taken, and there was a great deal of disagreement over what form said reforms would take.

Labour members said that they wanted to amend the Conservative motion, to say that they didn't want a recommendation to be sent to the government until the White Paper was actually published. This amendment to the motion was rejected by the council 44-8 (two abstained).

The full council voted on an amended Substantive Motion, and it was passed with 34 votes for, 14 against, and six abstentions.

What this will actually mean however, is that WCC's position on reform will be further debated by the cabinet, in consideration of what was discussed today.

The cabinet is also now required to discuss whether they will submit to MHCLG both the PWC report and the Deloitte report released by the district and borough councils yesterday, ahead of the White Paper bill. This could mean that recommendations are put forward by Warwickshire County Council that give recommendations for either a single unitary model, or a north-south divide model with two unitary councils.

Discussions are also to be held with public groups, organisations, and businesses, about what their views on reform are, and in what direction local government reforms will actually take when the time comes. This will involve the formation of a residents' panel.

The report predicts that should Warwickshire be invited to participate in the UK Government's reform of local authorities, that the process would then take over twelve months to be concluded.

A link to the amended proposal discussed in today's meeting can be found by following this link.