THE leader of Hampshire County Council has thanked residents for their feedback on the Serving Hampshire consultation – which set out to hear residents’ views on a range of options for how local councils could change.

The eight-week consultation closed last week and Roy Perry said: “It’s been extremely important to me that we listen first to the people of Hampshire before making any firm proposals. This is why we set out a number of options, including keeping the status quo, ie the two-tier system.

“My thanks go to the thousands of people who took the trouble to respond to this important consultation. Independent analysis of the responses will take place over the next few weeks, and will then be used to inform proposals for the county council to consider later in the autumn.

“Whatever proposals we may eventually put forward to central Government, they will be influenced by the desire of all Hampshire councils to gain more control over local matters – and will also need to take account of the severe financial situation.

“The scale of the financial challenges faced by all councils across Hampshire makes the issue of any local government reorganisation highly relevant. Just this week, the county council’s cabinet members have been planning ahead for the difficult financial outlook we face heading towards 2019.

“Everybody knows that councils are under a lot of pressure with money, especially those managing the very expensive social care services, and we’ve also been hit much harder than expected by unprecedented funding cuts by Government. For Hampshire County Council, these cuts translate into the need to find further savings of £140m by 2019 – on top of £340m of savings we will have already made by April 2017. This will bring the cumulative savings total to £480m, since 2008.

“Therefore, once the county council has had a chance to absorb the feedback from residents, we will take the opportunity to meet with other councils to discuss how together, we might form proposals to Government which will boost prosperity and preserve vital public services for the future.”