Member

This amendment speaks to wider issues of how local government reorganisation is carried out. Throughout the passage of this Bill, we have been arguing that devolution works best when it is grounded in local leadership and shaped by local priorities. There is inevitably some tension between achieving an orderly transition and ensuring that democratic mandates are not extended for longer than is necessary. The one year limit proposed here reflects past best practice in locally initiated reorganisations, where modest postponements have sometimes been required but multi year gaps in accountability have been carefully avoided through proper planning.