#essex-reorganisation

#essex-reorganisation

The five unitary model creates sensible geographies that will empower each new council to deliver new housing in line with local needs.

I was alarmed and made a point to the board that the review refers to Microsoft Copilot as being used to evaluate the returns. I don't think you can rely on artificial intelligence to do that. It's just wrong.

Ontario will consolidate its 36 conservation authorities into nine across the province. Environment Minister Todd McCarthy says there will be no job losses as a result. He says the province listened to feedback after several town halls and 14,000 comments on its plan, which initially proposed having seven conservation authorities.

Members of Kent County Council voted 45 in favor of a 3.8% increase in allowances, with 22 against and five abstentions, despite concerns over timing and optics.

Campaigner Aysha Hawcutt stated that residents were 'not anti-homes', but believed the Adlington plan was 'the wrong proposal in the wrong place'. She expressed pride in the community's resilience against the development threats.

Common Wealth cited the example of the Warmer Homes consortium, led by Portsmouth city council, which was allocated 22m among 31 authorities over three years. This breaks down to about 450-650 homes per year, or 15-20 homes per local authority per year.

I met Carole Guscott, a retired former carer, on a clear winter's morning in the Somerset town of Minehead. She was walking her whippet, Gracie, on the way back to her new flat, past the local Premier Inn and on to a cul de sac called Rainbow Way. I knew as soon as I saw it, she told me. I just thought: I can make this place my home.'

The bags are extremely thin so you can only put so much in there, and you can only put certain things in, but no one seems to adhere to that. As far as I know, there is nothing for food waste. There is no designated bin. In the summer it can be quite foul from the communal bin.

The seaside city of Southend-on-Sea, on England's east coast, looks grey on a winter afternoon in term-time. Its cobbled high street, bordering the university campus, is sparsely populated with market stalls, vape shops and discount retailers, and feels unusually quiet. There used to be lots of shops, restaurants and youth clubs around here, says 23-year-old Nathan Doucette-Chiddicks. Now, the city is about to lose something else that it can scarcely do without.

Last month, plans were submitted for Whitechapel Healthcare and Research Campus, a £750m development that would provide homes for key workers and supposedly address needs for more green spaces and community facilities. The proposal for the campus comes from investment firm BGO in collaboration with PLP Architecture and Barts Health NHS Trust. It's part of the newly announced Barts Life Science Cluster.

These powers could cover "governance, financial management and recruitment" at the Aspirerun authority but should be used "only where necessary".

I think perhaps there is some work to be done in supporting and helping our councils to understand what powers they do have. And how they might use them going forward in this new world - where we are beginning to look quite seriously at proper devolution down to parish council level.