South Kesteven District Council Response to Local Government Reorganisation in Lincolnshire

The recommended proposal is a merger of North and South Kesteven together with South Holland District and Rutland County.

The proposals will be presented to an Extraordinary Full Council meeting tomorrow (March 18^th 2025).

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A White Paper published in December last year asked district/borough and county councils across England to submit their initial LGR proposals by Friday March 21^st 2025. These will be developed into more detailed plans by November 2025.

The Government wants to replace the current system of counties and districts with unitary authorities to complement the newly devolved Greater Lincolnshire Mayoral Combined County Authority.

The proposals also outline preferred options for local government across the rest of Greater Lincolnshire which would result in three unitary authorities:

• Unitary 1, population 405,519: South Kesteven, North Kesteven, South Holland, Rutland (previously a member of the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership)
• Unitary 2, population 417,932: Boston, East Lindsey, West Lindsey, City of Lincoln
• Unitary 3, population 328,422: North Lincolnshire, North-East Lincolnshire

The Leader of SKDC, Cllr Ashley Baxter, said: “This will be the most significant overhaul of local government since the 1970s. The government has demanded that we move at pace to a very ambitious timeline.

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“Fundamentally, the government’s plans will take decision-making further away from local residents. There will be fewer councillors who will be inevitably be less accessible and less accountable to the people they represent.

“We are, however, committed to working with neighbouring councils to achieve the best possible outcome for our residents and businesses.

“Although the Government has suggested unitary authorities should have populations of around 500,000, there has been consistent guidance that proposals for smaller populations will be acceptable when supported by a clear rationale.

“It is also evident that proposals which cross existing public service boundaries would be considered which in our case would be the inclusion of Rutland county.

“Our proposal, therefore, strikes the right balance between sufficient scale to ensure financial sustainability and services, and the practical demands of Greater Lincolnshire’s geography.”