A disability charity has slammed proposals for a major authority shake-up in Bucks for failing to include detailed adult social care plans.

Buckinghamshire Disability Service (BuDS) has called for the government to halt discussions over creating a “super council” in the county until more detailed proposals are put forward.

Chair of trustees at BuDS, Andrew Clark, criticised the district and county councils for “failing to put social care at the heart of their plans” as the discussions over scrapping all councils in Bucks continue.

He said:“Social care services are the biggest and arguably most expensive and vital services provided by councils, keeping tens of thousands of people safe and independent.

"We’ve been alarmed and disappointed that the rival unitary proposals haven’t put social care at the heart of their plans – this is a shocking omission which has to be put right before this idea goes further, for the sake of the people of Bucks.

"While the County-led single unitary proposal isn’t sufficiently detailed, the District-led twin unitary proposals are frankly inadequate in how they deal with social care."

The ‘super council’ debate has been rumbling on in Bucks for almost two years – after the county council revealed plans to scrap all councils and replace them with one authority.

District council chiefs have long-opposed the plans, and presented their own proposals for two authorities in the county, one for the north and south.

In March then secretary of state for local government, Sajid Javid, backed the county’s plans and subsequently launched a public consultation which ended on May 25.

Leaders of the district councils said a key argument for abandoning the current council system is due to the “enormous pressure” currently placed BCC’s adult social care service.

In a joint statement the leaders of Wycombe, South Bucks, Chiltern and Aylesbury Vale district councils said: “In putting together our proposal for two new councils in Bucks, we met with Andrew to understand BuDS’ views and concerns.

“He told us that information that we’d already included in our submission was likely to cause some anxiety to vulnerable service users and advised us not to set out any details as this was likely to cause further anxiety.

“We therefore kept our comments to a broad proposal based on geography and community, rather than on the specifics of service provision.”

Leader of BCC, Martin Tett, argued creating a single-unitary authority in Bucks would free up £18 a year, some of which could be ploughed into social care.

He said: “We agree with BuDs that the proposal for two unitary authorities is “frankly inadequate” in its approach to adult social care. Creating two councils would split the service, causing severe disruption and risk to some of our most vulnerable residents. It would also weaken the service’s financial viability.”

The department for housing, communities and local government have been approached for a comment.