This follows reports of infighting between Ruth Kelly and the Treasury Chief Secretary, Stephen Timms, over the restructuring, with the Treasury concerned that reorganisation costs "may overrun", was "a waste of time" and there was no guarantee of efficiency savings. Conservatives have maintained that Labour's plans to abolish district or county councils were always politically motivated.
Philip Dunne MP, who has actively campaigned to keep our councils in Shropshire, said: "When I met the Minister earlier this year he acknowledged that the Government had originally budgeted for only 8 unitary applications to proceed, but hoped there might be room for more. Ruth Kelly allowed 16 areas to undertake public consultation, including Shropshire.
Now it seems there will not be more money after all. So many parts of the country will have quite unnecessarily been put through a three month consultation period, with its distractions for council staff and uncertainty for local communities. I have been concerned that this whole exercise has been a waste of time, energy and resources for all our local councils in Shropshire."
Eric Pickles MP, Conservative Shadow Minister for Local Government, commented:
"Hot on the heels of the Home Information Packs fiasco, more wheels have come off Ruth Kelly's department - with an effective admission that widespread local government restructuring will be too expensive to fund.
"Re-arranging the deck chairs of local government will do nothing to improve local services and will make town halls more distant from local people. Working families and pensioners, already suffering from punishing council tax hikes, could see their bills rise even more to pay for this politically-motivated restructuring.
"If the Government really wanted to save money, it should start by scrapping John Prescott's tiers of regional bureaucrats who have no mandate, no legitimacy and no accountability."
