A QUESTION mark hangs over the holding of elections for a new Waverley Borough Council next May, with a local government shake-up on the cards that could dispense with the council altogether. The government is considering scrapping the current two-tier system of county and borough or district councils in favour of all- purpose unitary authorities. A White Paper on reforming local councils is due to be published in the summer. But in the meantime, political ructions have begun nationally over the rumour that the 2007 elections could be scrapped with complicated reforms pending. The Minister for Communities, David Miliband, has dismissed suggestions that the elections will be cancelled, but Conservatives and Liberal Democrats believe axing the polls could avoid embarrassing defeats for Tony Blair. At Waverley Council, chief executive Christine Pointer, who has overall responsibility for elections as returning officer, is ruling nothing out. She told The Herald: "The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has issued no instruction to returning officers at this time. "However, if the structure of local government in Surrey is to be reorganised, the timing of that reorganisation does have implications for elections to existing district councils, and for the new shadow authorities." She pointed out that in the past, shadow councils have usually been elected a year before change over, in order to allow members of the incoming authority to shape the new council. As civil servants are discussing proposals for change in 2009, scrapping the elections could give the current council six years in power rather than four, but with elections to the new shadow local authority in 2008. "However," pointed out Ms Pointer, "if the operational date for any new authority were to be April 2008, it would be appropriate to hold elections in May 2007, as currently scheduled, to that new shadow body, and to hold over the borough elections scheduled for that date for just one year. "In reality, the ODPM is simply seeking to engender a pro-active debate on the future of local government and until the White Paper is issued in the summer, the best information that we have is that elections will take place for Waverley Borough Council in May 2007. Council leader Gillian Ferguson indicated that Waverley is focusing its intention on the potential shake-up to the system, which she regarded as probably the most important thing that has happened in local government for a long time. "What we have done is to set up a special interest group (SIG) to get cross-party discussion and get as much information from the government on how we might form up into a unitary authority and who in Surrey we may team up with. "We should be talking to Guildford and Woking Borough Councils and other groupings from all over the county so that district and county can put forward their own formula." Miss Ferguson said David Milliband is inviting all county councils and district councils to contribute their views ahead of next summer's White Paper. She described the two-tier system as "quite cumbersome" and predicted that as Labour is unlikely to get control of the shire counties, it will start breaking them up. "It will be expensive - we have to be sure that we put up a united front. The more cross- oundary agreement, the better it will be for all of us. "With a population of more than a million, Surrey could be split," she warned.
