Asked by: Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative - Bridgwater and West Somerset)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the agenda was for the meeting between the Minister of State for Local Government and the leader of Somerset County Council in July 2018.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The Leader of Somerset County Council, Cllr. Fothergill, accompanied by Cllr Harvey Siggs, Leader of Mendip District Council, Cllr Faye Purbeck, Cabinet member for Education and Council Transformation at Somerset County Council and Patrick Flaherty, Chief Executive of Somerset County Council, met me on 11 July. Cllr. Fothergill arranged this meeting to let me know his and his colleagues’ thoughts about future reorganisation in Somerset, to which I responded by outlining the Government’s position on such unitarisation, which I had set out earlier on 22 May in the Westminster Hall debate on Somerset County Council’s Plans for Unitary Status (Hansard ref Volume 641 Column 335WH).
Asked by: Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative - Bridgwater and West Somerset)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the agenda was for the meeting between the Minister of State for Local Government and the leader of Somerset County Council in July 2018.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The Leader of Somerset County Council, Cllr. Fothergill, accompanied by Cllr Harvey Siggs, Leader of Mendip District Council, Cllr Faye Purbeck, Cabinet member for Education and Council Transformation at Somerset County Council and Patrick Flaherty, Chief Executive of Somerset County Council, met me on 11 July. Cllr. Fothergill arranged this meeting to let me know his and his colleagues’ thoughts about future reorganisation in Somerset, to which I responded by outlining the Government’s position on such unitarisation, which I had set out earlier on 22 May in the Westminster Hall debate on Somerset County Council’s Plans for Unitary Status (Hansard ref Volume 641 Column 335WH).
Asked by: Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative - Bridgwater and West Somerset)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many meetings Ministers and officials of his Department have had with officials and members of Somerset County Council; and what correspondence his Department has had with Somerset County Council on unitary status in the last six months.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
Ministers and officials regularly have correspondence and discussions with local authorities about a wide range of issues, which may include reorganisation from a two tier structure to unitary status. Such correspondence has recently included a letter from the Leader of Somerset County Council asking for a meeting to discuss his early thinking on restructuring.