Suffolk County Council leaders to hold extraordinary devolution meetings

County leaders will hold two extraordinary meetings to discuss the Government's devolution plans.

On Monday, the Government revealed its plans to turn to scrap district and borough councils and replace them with unitary authorities, giving councils the opportunity to participate in its devolution priority programme.

The programme is meant for councils which can come together to achieve mayoral devolution at pace.

The new local authorities will represent at least 500,000 people, with certain exceptions where they might make practical sense.

Suffolk's county leader, Cllr Matthew Hicks said the extra meetings would give councillors the opportunity of making their cases.

He added: "Changes of this scale create an opportunity to streamline local government, empower joined-up decision-making, save taxpayers money and ensure councils are resistant to economic challenges.

“I welcome the positive engagement of Suffolk’s district and borough councils. This is a significant decision and one that will not be taken lightly.”

The Government's plans include the creation of new mayoral authorities, with a single directly elected leader covering large geographies who would have powers over transport infrastructure, health improvement and blue light services.

Both meetings will be held on January 9 at 2pm at the council's headquarters in Russell Road, and will be live streamed on YouTube.