Warwickshire council leader can't say whether districts and boroughs will be safe under combined authority plans

The leader of Warwickshire County Council admits she is unable to allay fears that full membership of the West Midlands Combined Authority could lead to the demise of borough and district councils.

The county’s cabinet will consider options to gain more devolved powers when it meets on Thursday, including whether to formalise links with the block of councils led by elected mayor Andy Street.

The publication of papers outlining the next steps, and in particular a hurried timescale, has caused angst in Warwickshire's second-tier councils.

Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council last week passed a motion signalling its intent to oppose “any proposal that would or could lead to the abolition” of the authority.

It was noted during that debate that all current constituent members of the West Midlands Combined Authority are unitary councils – single authorities that deal with everything rather than Warwickshire’s system of local government that splits functions over two levels – and that there had been no information on whether the status of the region's districts and boroughs would be safe.

Asked whether she could rule out full membership leading to unitary status, Councillor Izzi Seccombe OBE (Con, Stour & the Vale) replied: “I can’t rule out anything, I don’t know all of the detail behind it. What we need is this piece of work to consider what we have before us.

“As far as I am aware, at this stage what we are looking at is the government seeking our interest and we are seeking (to establish) our interest in becoming a full member.

“We have been a non-constituent member for seven years now, so have the boroughs and districts, so there is already a relationship, it is whether we formalise that and make it a stronger relationship, if we want to and the constituent members want us to. We will see."

A county council spokesperson said that districts and boroughs would "automatically become full members in their own right" should full membership progress and that "there is no link between admission to the WMCA and local government reform which is a separate process".

Asked what her position would be if full membership meant unitary status in the future, Cllr Seccombe said she had “absolutely no inclination on that at this point”, adding: “That is not what this paper is, this is about the combined authority.”

Put to her that councillors from her own party and members of the public may be concerned, Cllr Seccombe said she would offer her view on unitary status “when that became an issue, if it ever did”.

The county’s report recommends that chief executive Monica Fogarty and Cllr Seccombe work to “explore the option for Warwickshire County Council to become a constituent member of the West Midlands Combined Authority”.

Warwickshire County Council and four of the county’s five boroughs and districts are currently non-constituent members with limited voting rights. Warwick District Council is an observer organisation without any voting rights.

Stepping up would see the county bound by a more formal link while potentially benefiting from greater funding opportunities brought about by increased devolved powers – greater scope from central government to fund and take key decisions on things like economic development, housing, skills and transport.

The report gives councillors four options to decide upon – for Warwickshire to continue to seek a devolution deal in its own right without a directly-elected mayor, to pause that work, to continue to “pursue the benefits” of the deeper devolution deal being pushed forward by the West Midlands Combined Authority as a non-constituent member, or to seek full membership.

A list of advantages of full membership features “speedier access” to the “significant benefits” of attaching the council to the existing and developing combined authority framework with a “potentially less complex process of negotiation”.

The disadvantages are having to make a greater financial contribution, including a “bespoke fee arrangement for Warwickshire councils given the two-tier structure”, and an acknowledgement that unnamed aspects of the county council’s work “would transfer to the control” of the combined authority.

Time is of the essence with Warwickshire required to formally apply by October if the county is to be included ahead of the next mayoral election which takes place in May 2024.

If Warwickshire misses the cut, the council could not upgrade its membership until the next mayoral election in 2028 but the rush to meet the deadline and a lack of clarity over what it may mean is causing angst – even for members of Cllr Seccombe’s cabinet.

Councillor Sue Markham (Con, Bedworth North), the county’s portfolio holder for children & families and the borough’s portfolio holder for public services (Poplar), said she had only seen the county’s report on Wednesday (July 5).

“There is a lot of information but it doesn’t say anything, there are pages but when you read them it doesn’t mean anything,” she said.

“We really need to know what is going on before they can make a decision on our behalf. They have said there is going to be consultation but if it wants to be passed by October there is not going to be very much consultation.

“We need to speak at the meetings but I do think it is coming in far too fast.”

Cllr Seccombe said: “Nobody has a great deal of information. The essence of the paper to cabinet is to ask officers to do that investigative work.

“This is not a decision, there is no mandate for officers to do that work without permission from cabinet and if that is what we want, they will seek to do that preparatory work.”