An open letter from Warwick district Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Alan Boad to leader of Warwickshire County Council Cllr Izzi Seccombe.

Dear Izzi,

I am writing to you on behalf of Warwick District Liberal Democrats to request that you do not submit a letter to the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution asking for the county council elections to be postponed.

We do not support the possibility of Conservative-led Warwickshire County Council postponing the county elections due to take place in May.

This is the largest change in local government since 1974 and should be carefully considered, it is important to get it right for residents, and not in the self-interest of any political party.

Instead, I urge you to take the time and adopt a cross-party approach to leading a proper consultation with residents, elected members, businesses, stakeholders, neighbouring councils and unitary authorities before any local government reform is imposed which risks diminishing local representation.

We would like to make it clear that we do not support the creation of one unitary council for Warwickshire.

We believe that the opportunity for appropriate local decision making powers to be moved nearer to the communities that the new council will serve and are not taken away to a distant body that has no interest in the many varied local communities across Warwickshire.

To set up the new strategic authority will take time and requires consultation not only with neighbouring councils, but also with existing unitary authorities and combined authorities.

Some existing members of West Midlands Combined Authority may also believe that their best interests lie in creating a new strategic authority with Warwickshire.

It will take time to have these conversations and some options may be closed off when the decision on how the future unitary authority(s) are organised is made, so these discussions must take place in parallel.

It is over 50 years since the current boundaries were drawn up and it will probably be another 50 years until it happens again.

Instead of avoiding the elections in May this year, they can give a fresh mandate to those fortunate enough to be elected to lead Warwickshire through the change that is coming and set it up for success in the future.

Dodging the elections and rushing headlong down a preconceived path cannot be in the best interests of Warwickshire and it is not the right thing to do.

Yours etc,

Cllr Alan Boad