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Public Relations

If you are a journalist wanting to contact North Norfolk District Council for information or comment, please call Nick Manthorpe, Media Officer, on 01263 516059 or Peter Battrick, Communications Manager, on 01263 516344. You can also email media@north-norfolk.gov.uk

The team also produces the quarterly Outlook magazine for North Norfolk residents, as well as meeting the council's in-house design and branding business needs.

The latest update on Local Government Review

15 July 2009
The latest update on Local Government Review
The Boundary Committee has announced that it is not now able to publish advice indicating how it thinks unitary local government ought to be introduced into Norfolk, Devon and Suffolk. The advice was due to be delivered to the Secretary of State later today, 15th July. In turn the Secretary of State was expected to announce a decision regarding the future of local government in the three counties, probably in October. Such an announcement now appears unlikely.

The Boundary Committee’s announcement follows a High Court ruling last week on the way the local government review process has been managed in Suffolk; the ruling has clear and direct implications for the review process in both Norfolk and Devon.

The Secretary of State, John Denham, has agreed that more time is now necessary for a legal appeal against the ruling to be heard, although it has not yet been decided if the Boundary Committee will take up this option. The senior civil servant overseeing the process said Mr Denham recognised  the ‘importance of minimising further disruption and the continuing period of uncertainty for the councils and local communities concerned and he will have regard to this when deciding what, if any, further later date should be specified’.

The timetable was already tight for a new local government structure to be created and its implementation to be begun before the deadline of April 2010 and this new delay makes it appear much less likely that it could be achieved. Because a general election has to be held by June next year this in turn makes it less likely that unitary local government will be introduced into Norfolk in the near future.

However, we have received no formal communication from the Secretary of State nor from the Boundary Committee that the current review is being abandoned and until such time as we do North Norfolk District Council and other members of the Keep Norfolk Local group will continue to respond to the process while continuing to stress the advantages of the existing structure of local government in Norfolk and to identify ways of making it work even more effectively for the local communities involved.