Benefits of Team Somerset

The Team Somerset Outline Business Case is now available and provides a realistic alternative to the County Council's plans for a single Somerset Authority. Fundamentally, it pledges to achieve annual efficiency savings in excess of £22 million from 2012 and almost £8 million within just two years without the financial burden and the disruption that the unitary proposals would incur.

The main benefits of Team Somerset are:

• All Somerset local authorities, working as a team, will ensure that Somerset residents experience excellent value for money, with service performance and costs that compare with the very best in the country. Team Somerset will achieve annual efficiency savings in excess of £22 million from 2012, and almost £8 million within just two years.

• Team Somerset will avoid the costly and unnecessary disruptions to service delivery that would be caused by any wholesale structural reform of local government in Somerset.

• Somerset does not have a "one size fits all" community and Team Somerset will provide solutions that meet needs at a local community level.

• Proposed Community Partnerships will provide an opportunity to join up various community engagement and area based initiatives of different agencies, eliminating duplication.

• Our proposed new local governance arrangements for Somerset present a radical departure from the status quo. These will provide a mix of strongly connected components that provide strategic leadership and focus at all levels, from county-wide to the local community.
• There will be no reduction in democratic representation or accountability.

• Unlike the unitary proposals, Team Somerset has been produced in partnership and has the support of all the District Councils in Somerset.

• Essentially, is a unitary authority what Somerset residents want? A recent YouGov poll (7-12 March) revealed that people oppose the County Council's plans for a single unitary council for Somerset by more than three to one. Responding to a recent questionnaire, the majority of Somerset parish councillors were also opposed to the proposal for a County-wide unitary council.