Farage 'will fight' Essex council reorganisation

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he is "deeply sceptical" about changes to local councils in Essex.

The current 15 authorities and two levels of local government are due to be abolished and replaced with between three and five all-purpose unitary councils.

"We should fight against this," Clacton MP Farage told the BBC. "I think that to maintain overall the presence of an identifiable county council is the right way to go."

A government spokesperson said: "We're simplifying local government and ending confusing two-tier structures in Essex, so these authorities work better for local people."

Speaking while campaigning in Corringham ahead of the local elections on 7 May, Farage said: "The idea that you take the county of Essex, you carve it up into a series of unitaries, you then impose a mayor upon it – nobody here has asked for massive local government change.

"Nobody here has asked for Essex to have a mayor.

"I think the danger is that you get rid of the county council... and you begin to lose a sense of what Essex as a county is."

The party leader said Reform UK would try to put a stop to local government reform.

The latest plans for the biggest reshape in local democracy in half a century in Essex have been worked on by different councils and political parties for years.

Fewer all-purpose unitary councils are expected to save money and be simpler for residents. Opponents argue local government will not be so local with councillors representing larger areas.

Deputy county council leader Louise McKinlay, a Conservative, argued "it just demonstrates Nigel Farage knows nothing about local government".

McKinlay, who supports the three-unitary model for Essex, said the existing councils were facing challenges.

"We know the financial pressures are there. It is only going to get harder," she said.

"We have got increases in social care. We know we want to go far further and do more for our county. By having that joined approach through the councils coming together we will be in a much stronger place."

Some Reform UK councillors have supported local government reform.

Peter Harris, the party's Greater Essex mayoral candidate, was also Farage's election agent in Clacton.

In January, he said: "We need to get behind [local government reform] and make sure that it happens."

Other political parties also hold different views. Most Conservative council leaders back the three-council option, although some Tory MPs prefer the five-council option, which is also widely supported by Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

However, Labour-run Thurrock Council has proposed a four-council model.

After legal pressure from Reform UK, the Labour government changed its mind last month and said this year's elections should go ahead.

At the time, the Labour leader of Basildon Borough Council, Gavin Callaghan, said: "There is now no doubt that LGR in Essex is over."

McKinlay, who is the Conservative mayoral candidate for Greater Essex, added: "If it unravels it is simply going to mean there's going to have been a lot of wasted time, effort, energy, money, collaboration and focus which we have all put in cross-party, across the county.

"Going forward it will be mean we can't take advantage of the economies of scale."

A spokesperson for the Department for Housing, Communities & Local Government said: "Our plans will make public services better and deliver positive change for communities."

It is understood the government could announce next week how many councils Essex will have.

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