Councils pledge to work together on devolution

Leaders of all nine Nottinghamshire councils say they will "work together" in response to plans that could see some of them scrapped.

The government said in December it wanted to get rid of two-tier local authority systems - large county councils and smaller districts - in a bid to streamline services.

Initial proposals for how the shake-up could work in the future are due to be submitted in March.

On Wednesday, Nottinghamshire council leaders said they would "develop and test initial options" together.

A joint team will include all the local authorities - Nottingham City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council and the district and borough councils.

After the proposals were announced in December, the body which represents district councils argued "mega-councils" could undermine local decision-making.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said at the time the government would work with local leaders to deliver its plans but ministers would get the power to create larger authorities where they could not agree on the way forward.

A joint statement shared by Nottingham City Council said: "The leaders of all nine councils across Nottinghamshire and Nottingham have agreed to work together on a response to the government's invitation for local government reorganisation.

"Council leaders agreed that all options should be 'on the table' with only those proposals that deliver quality services for local people and create sustainable councils to be taken forward.

"Detailed work will now be undertaken by a joint team from across all councils to develop and test initial options, with initial responses submitted in March.

"Following the county council elections in May, further work, including appropriate consultation will be carried out on preferred options before members consider proposals for reorganisation to submit to government in the autumn."

By Hugh Casswell, Political reporter, BBC Nottingham

At the moment, there are nine different councils in Nottinghamshire in charge of different services and all run in different ways.

In December, the government said it wanted to do away with two-tiered council systems and opened the door to boundaries being completely redrawn.

But it's not clear what the future set-up for Nottinghamshire will be.

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