Surrey County Council to pursue and further ‘localism’ (12th May)

‘Public Service Boards’ will bring the public sector together to better serve local residents and businesses

Speaking at yesterday’s meeting of Surrey County Council, Dr. Andrew Povey, Leader of Surrey County Council, announced plans to further the localism agenda that he underpinned his leadership.

He talked of creating ‘public service boards’ that would bring together the County Council, Borough/District Councils, the police and the health service in a given Borough/District area, and that would be able to scrutinise ALL public service spending in that area with a view to eliminating duplication and securing value for money.

He also stated that there would be two sets of pilot schemes, with Woking and Mole Valley’s Local Committees being vice-Chaired by a member of the local councils, rather than the County Council, and Elmbridge and Reigate & Banstead having two vice-Chairmen (one from SCC, and one from the appropriate Borough Councils).

“We are building on the work of my predecessor, Nick Skellett, by saying to our Borough/District partners that in the interest of cooperation and serving the public, we are more than happy for them to play a fuller part in the work of our Local Committees. We should like to get all public sector bodies in our 11 Borough/District areas to work together so that we can ensure value for money and avoid waste.

There is a lot of public money spent in Surrey and we need to ensure that it is spend wisely and in a co-ordinated fashion. I feel that by showing we are open to enhanced partnership working we can achieve this and deliver better local government for our residents and businesses”.