FAQs

Our proposal is to merge eight councils into one to simplify services and improve value for taxpayers: creating a new authority name and constitution. Within the proposal we are suggesting that North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire would remain as they are currently, therefore creating 3 unitary authorities.

Using the existing geography of Lincolnshire County Council for the new council would cut down on service disruption and means we wouldn’t have to break up existing high performing services like adult social care, children’s services and Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue.

The new combined authority would keep the geography and separate responsibilities that it already has under the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire. It’s likely that the governance of the Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority (GLCCA) would need to be adapted to replace the current representatives from existing councils.

You can find out more about the GLCCA here (greaterlincolnshire-cca.gov.uk)

Any new authority would have a physical presence in locations across Lincolnshire to support local services on the ground, as Lincolnshire County Council currently does. Having one authority would be a more efficient way to run things behind the scenes as well as being more straight-forward for residents.

All councils in Lincolnshire have local representatives, and that would continue to be the case. In fact, many district councillors are also Lincolnshire County Councillors too and help residents with council issues in more than one authority. Local councillors with local knowledge would still be an important part of any new authority.

The government has made clear that there will no longer be county and district councils and have asked local areas to put forward proposals for what a new, single tier council could look like.

This isn’t a formal consultation, that will be led by the government following submission of proposals, but we’re committed to getting the views of residents and organisations to inform the proposal and get feedback about what is important to you, before we submit anything to government. Other models for new authorities have been proposed for Lincolnshire and Greater Lincolnshire and there are some more details on these webpages.