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The West Wiltshire view During the run up to the decision to create a unitary Wiltshire, West Wiltshire, Kennet and Salisbury District Councils shared common concerns about the County’s bid for unitary status. We believed that Wiltshire was not an obvious choice for piloting this type of local government, as it is such a large, rural area, and, as a result, the Members of the three councils resolved they would oppose the unitary bid. West Wiltshire discussed the issue on several occasions:
Our views and findings were set out in the following letters to both Wiltshire County Council and the Secretary of State:
The district councils commissioned an independent examination of the County Council’s submission from Professor Michael Chisholm, an expert in local government reorganisation from the University of Cambridge. His report (PDF file, opens in new window) confirmed our concerns about both the financial case and the proposals for service delivery. In addition, a number of West Wiltshire press releases were issued:
We also produced three newsletters for our stakeholders, setting out our position:
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