re: The Strategic Financial Case for Local Government Reorganisation in Bucks.

I would like to record my congratulations to Alex Pratt and Bucks Business First for quickly and efficiently procuring the report demonstrating the benefits of reorganising the current top heavy council structure in Buckinghamshire. In just a few months BBF have provided a sound basis for starting a meaningful debate, something that our four district councils have spectacularly failed, or perhaps more accurately, refused to do. See the full report at http://www.bbf.uk.com/download/535 The district leaders have indicated a willingness to start talking, but not until after the 2015 elections. To his credit, the leader of the county council has been quite clear that he is in favour of a single Bucks Unitary, and is ready to start negotiations as soon as the district leaders agree to come to the party.

If you are a Bucks council tax payer and you would like to have services, not service cuts, you would like to see the waste and duplications inherent in the current five council structure eliminated, and you would like to see £20m saved each and every year, you must force your political leaders to take action. Bucks will face damaging budget cuts in the next couple of years. Plans that can be acted upon immediately after the May 2015 elections need to be drawn up now.

The district leaders have been sitting on the fence too long. Its time for them to stop preserving those ivory towers and instead represent those who put them in office. – Cllr Peter Cooper, Independent, AVDC Wingrave ward