The leader of Staffordshire County Council has said residents and businesses are a priority as new unitary authority plans move forward.
An interim plan for local government reorganisation and devolution have been submitted to the government.
The plan proposes two unitary councils for Staffordshire in place of the 10 local authorities currently running day-to-day services.
But there are two options for the size and shape of them.
The first is a new county unitary combining areas currently served by the county council and the eight district and borough councils working alongside Stoke-on-Trent City Council as an existing council working on its current boundaries.
And the other is for a North Staffordshire Council covering Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and the Staffordshire Moorlands with a Southern Staffordshire unitary covering the districts of Lichfield, Cannock Chase and East Staffordshire, the district of South Staffordshire and the boroughs of Tamworth and Stafford.
The plans are in response to the government’s English Devolution White Paper and local authorities were required to submit outline plans this month, with detailed proposals due in the Autumn.
Councillor Alan White, Chair of Staffordshire Leaders Board and Leader of Staffordshire County Council, said: “As leaders, our priority in this process is our residents and businesses.
“There’s growing consensus that a Mayoral Strategic Authority will bring extra investment and freedoms to boost our economy further. This is the real prize we’re working towards.”
He added: “When it comes to the future shape of local councils, there is more work to be done. Councils are hugely complex organisations delivering hundreds of different services. There are significant costs and risks involved in reorganising these – especially for vital services like social care – so we must get this right.
“It is also critical that any proposals are relevant to local communities and support local representation and decision making.
“We’ll be doing detailed work in the months ahead to test our thinking and we’ll follow what the evidence tells us.”
