User:Morwen/notes

Work plan

the original work plan is [1]

1. Avon, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Cleveland, County Durham, Humberside, Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire, Isle of Wight
2. Cambridgeshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Devon, Hampshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire
3. Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cheshire, East Sussex, West Sussex, Kent, Northamptonshire
4. Dorset, Essex, Hereford and Worcester, Norfolk, Suffolk, Wiltshire
5. Cornwall, Hertfordshire, Northumberland, Shropshire, Surrey, Warwickshire

Timeline

1992

• Local Government Act 1992 recieves royal assent

1994

• January 28: Lancashire got the "revised guidance" declared illegal - change to allow the status quo to be retained.
• April - the Wight order is put before the house
• June - Cleveland County Council's judicial review application is turned down
• July 5 - The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 recieves Royal Assent
• December - The Cleveland, Humberside and Avon orders are put before the House
• November 3 - The Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 recieves Royal Assent

1995

• early: John Banham resigns as chair of the Commission.

• March 21 - John Gummer makes a statement in the house. David Cooksey is to be the chair of the new Commission.

John Gummer announces that he is going to accept the recommendations of the commission with respect to

• Derbyshire - Derby to become unitary
• Staffordshire - Stoke to become unitary
• Wiltshire - Thamesdown to become unitary
• East Sussex - Brighton and Hove to merge and become unitary
• Devon - Torbay and Plymouth to become unitary
• Nottinghamshire - Nottingham to become unitary
• Essex - Southend to become unitary
• Herefordshire to become unitary
• Leicestershire - Leicester and Rutland to become unitary

with the reservation that certain districts will be referred back.

In some areas he disagrees

• Hampshire - Portsmouth and Southampton to become unitary, but New Forest is not
• Dorset - Bournemouth and Poole to become unitary, but the rest to remain two-tier (what exactly did they recommend?)
• Berkshire - all unitary. proposal to merge Bracknell Forest and Windsor and Maidenhead rejected.

[2]

He decides to add Norwich and The Wrekin to the list of districts to be reconsidered.

• April - the Wight order takes effect

• December 19 the recommendations of the Commission are made to the government.

Basildon, Broxtowe, Dartford, Exeter, Gedling, Gloucester, Gravesham, Huntingdonshire, Northampton, Norwich, Rushcliffe, and Spelthorne - no change. Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Medway (Gillingham/Rochester), Halton, Warrington, Peterborough, Thurrock, Telford and the Wrekin - the commission consents to change here.

1996

• 1996: Cleveland, Humberside, Avon reorganised

Proposals

Oxfordshire

[3]

Three options

• 3 unitary districts (june 13, 1994) - Oxford, merged South and Vale, merged West and Cherwell
• unitary county
• status quo

Durham

[4]

initial review

• Unitary Durham and Darlington

after status quo to be considered

• unitary in Darlington, status quo elsewhere