A new Council for Bognor Regis?

Well, firstly, are we agreed by what we all mean by 'Bognor Regis'?

The four wards, Hotham, Marine, Orchard and Pevensey - around 22,000 population?
The old Bognor Regis Urban District Council - the current 4 wards, Aldwick, Felpham and ?Middleton?
Or all those plus Bersted and Pagham?  Total population 63,000, quite a size indeed.

All of them fall with Arun District and within West Sussex, both of which have what are called 'Principal Councils'  (not "principled" ...?)    So we have already 2 councils who split the work:   Arun does planning, licencing, housing, leisure.   West Sussex = education, children and adult services, highways and some leisure.   A two-tier local government arrangement.  The principal councils all have statutory duties defined by Acts of Parliament.

The 'Top Tiers'

Arun came into being in 1974, thanks to the 1972 Local Government Act, bless it, which aimed iin the main to create Unitary Councils - that is, to do all that West Sussex and Arun do - but one suspects the shire counties kicked up and got the current ragbag arrangement across England, but not Scotland or Wales.   Both Arun and County operate Cabinet government where a group of portfolio members control e.g. housing, education, planning etc and are supposed to be kept to account by all the other councillors through select committees or the like - I make a decision, you scrutinise it and then I generally do it anyway.   This is very much influenced by the senior (ie paid) professional council officers, thank you very much.

Changes in Local Government

There is a great deal of upheaval going on at this time in English local government, mainly cost-driven and some novel approaches.    When we now speak of Worthing, we should perhaps speak of Worthing-Adur and these 2 councils are joined at the hip.  More so than Arun with Chichester when the former has outsourced some aspects to Chichester.    There's now a grand design for all the Greater Manchester councils to work as one in many strategic areas (they are all unitaries) with even a elected Mayor plus a huge raft of new powers from central government, a region indeed.   In other caes, 2 shires have gone unitary - Shropshire and Cornwall - so their former second-level districts councils are all gone.   In Cheshire, the unitaries that formed to abolish Cheshire County and all district councils now plan to merge, wait for it, to a unitary Cheshire.

Out of Arun?

 

In this area, long-standing dissatisfaction, founded or not, with Arun has led to calls for 'Out-of-Arun' and the first real flowering of that seniment came in the early 1990s with Polls in 3 parishes, Bognor Town, Bersted and Felpham where 8 out of 9 wanted to be gone from Arun.   It didn't materialise, and the sentiment has grown again especially over Regeneration, which is what kicked off the 1990s version BTW.

There has been a call, and now a Petition, for a Bognor Regis District Council to be formed, away from Arun:   the argument can be read here:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/69204


What Next?

This begs a question.   If the trend is generally towards unitaries, what then would be the situation in West Sussex at District level?    One can see for Arun some possibilities:

• maybe stronger non-unitary arrangement with a neighbour council, which would be Chichester.
• maybe a unitary arrangement taking the powers from West Sussex as well as those from 2 (or more) district councils - e.g. Arun-Chichester (coastal/rural), Arun-Worthing-Adur (coastal) or even Arun-Chichester-Horsham which would in effect be dividing County into 2 (maybe the other four districts forming the other unitary NE West Sussex)
• or, most likely, a Unitary West Sussex.   Why so?  Because it would be the least expensive to set up, achieve greatest long-term savings in staffing and running costs and because it has in place structures, the County Area Committees, which could ensure closer County Councillor decision making in the areas they serve.   County could easily take on planning and licencing duties, using the Area Committees to great effect, where they would come into direct contact with the parish council reps appointed to them.   Size matters - or it used to.   The general top-limit for a unitary is reckoned to be around 350,000 but Birmingham is 1 million plus, Manchester 514,500 so West Sussex at 750,000 plus ought to present no problem there.

I think it will be easily seen that a traditional Bognor Regis District Council simply taking over Arun's duties would not be a strong runner.  The current petition has 195 signatures.   The council would NOT be the old Urban District - see above for not covering the 63000 population urban area we now have - and just as well given a slightly murky history such as fascist salutes and designed crest (still used by the current Town Council) and enough corruption to bar some councillors from office for five years in the 1960s ....

'We want a Local Voice for Bognor'

"We need a local Voice"  that is what one hears, something strong enough to speak for the Town be it with Arun, a new 'arrangement', a unitary body all the way up to County level.   A District Council within a non-unitary as-we-are set up would do that.   What if we had a unitary situation?  

Enter the Parish Councils, 32 of them in Arun but 6 that matter directly to that 63,000 population, based on the parishes of Aldwick, Bersted, Bognor Town (4 wards), Felpham, Middleton and Pagham.  These councils are elected at the same time as Arun, every 4 years.  Elected does not have to mean there was a ballot.   If there are 12 places and only 12 or less are nominated, they are elected "unopposed", and that council can then coopt (bring on) unelected people to make up the gap if they wish.   A large proportion of parish councillors in those 32 PCs are in office by such a route.

                        Bersted                 Bognor Town

What do they do?   Well, they do not have statutory powers or duties except to be able to raise a precept (rate) and to make expenditure.  They have a right to be consulted by the local planning authority, licencing, but not to be heeded.   They can work together but perhaps do not tend to do so, and the nadir of this was always the row in this area as to whose representative should go forward at the War Memorial on Remembrance Sunday .... hopefully now a past issue.

But they can and do stand for a local view  ...  but it is for part of that urban area we call 'Bognor Regis'.  Yes, most folk think of Bersted, Bognor Regis, Felpham, Bognor Regis,  Aldwick, Bognor Regis (some maybe Aldwick near Chichester or Felpham West Sussex).

These are ancient parish councils?  Well, attending them may feel like a Methuselah Convention but only Bersted and Pagham (possibly Middleton) predate the 1972 Local Government Act.  Bognor Town and Co are johnny-com-latelys, 1985 to be precise.    Why was Bognor not create larger?  The Act at that time defined a maximum population figure of 25,000 so the Town could have taken in the 4 wards, Felpham and Aldwick.   By the way, it's called Bognor Regis Town Council but it's a larger parish.

The Case for a One Bognor Town Council

Today, if we formed a Town Council it could be for a population of 100,000, the rules changed, and Weston-super-Mare indeed  has a Town Council for 70,000 people and one can argue it is more effective, within a unitary setting, than our current mix of six.

What is the view of central government about parish-level government?  Well, Coaltion, Labour or Tory, all encouraging of quality, elected-by-ballot councillors, more powers to deliver including bidding for services now run by their principal councils.

The real joy (not quite the word) of this is that, unitary or not, a Town Council for all of the REAL Bognor Regis can be put in place to great effect.   What would it, could it own?

Allotments, all the Parish Halls, The Picturedrome, plus bid for .... Hotham Park, West Park, Marine Park Gardens, Avisford Park, the various greens/recs in the area, Hothamton gardens, the bowling green .... the Town Hall, the Regis Centre.   Quite a handsome portfolio.   Not to mention the concessions for market (spruce it up), Hotham Park, Prom etc etc

Also raise a precept from the whole area which would mean everyone paying for our amenities and not just the part with the poorest people ....   

In this writer's view, such a Town Council could also enter into exciting partnerships, for example to deliver youth services to all young people, bringing in the enthusiasm, voluntary skills and time of local organisations like 39 Club, Number 18 etc

So, now's the Time to say what YOU want ...

One Bognor is a simple exercise: to test the water, so to speak, about what YOU want.  The link is here and it offers you a chance to consider the options and to make choices.   So far, the test phase has shown considerable majority support for one Town Council instead of six parishes to speak for us. 

So please complete the Poll and if you sign, your signature will be part of a Petition reflecting your choice which will be taken forward.   We need a minimum of signatures for each parish, so, this is your chance to say who you want to speak for 'Bognor Regis'.

LINK:  http://tinyurl.com/One-Bognor-2014