County Council leader Martin Tett says he is “disappointed” that four district councils have chosen to spend taxpayers’ money on consultants instead of “discussing their ideas” about the future of local government with them.

It was announced this morning that Chiltern, South Bucks, Wycombe and Aylesbury Vale district councils rejected Bucks County Council’s offer to join them in preparing a “business case” for a single unitary authority and have instead decided to carry out their own independent review.

Cllr Tett says it is “regrettable” that they have chosen to spend up to £200,000 on external management consultants to carry out the review instead of working with the county council.

Although he welcomed the district councils’ recognition of the “need to modernise local government in Buckinghamshire” he said he did not receive a response to a letter calling for them to work together until today – six weeks later.

He said: “We have been clear for some time that local government can no longer afford the muddle and cost of having parish/town, district and county councils covering the same area.

“The county council took the decision in early May to look at options for modernising local government in Buckinghamshire including developing a business case for a new, single unitary council, and we invited the district councils to work with us in evaluating any other options based on common methodology and shared evidence base. 

“Only today, six weeks later, have we received a response to our invitation refusing our offer to work together in the interests of residents.

“The fact that the district leaders have refused to work with us and indeed have used taxpayers’ money to fund expensive management consultants is regrettable.”

Rachel Prance, spokesman for Chiltern and South Bucks district council’s said the actual cost of their independent review will not be known until they receive the proposals from their consultants later this week.