Councils almost ready to share some services

On Monday, Rother’s Cabinet gave its blessing to the arrangement, which will mean Rother and Wealden becoming the “first port of call” for each other when looking to combine resources and expertise.

Together the two councils provide services to 235,000 people across more than 500 square miles of East Sussex, and faced with cuts in government funding, leaders of both believe it makes sense to work more closely together, while not ruling out co-operation with other authorities when necessary, either now or in the future.

Councillor Joy Hughes (Con) welcomed the move and said: “I think it is a very good news story.”

Fellow Tory, Cllr Brian Kentfield, said his only concern was that “we have first call upon our staff and there is no poaching of staff during this process”.

Rother’s chief executive, Derek Stevens, advised Cabinet that developing shared service delivery was far easier to achieve with one other “willing” partner, rather than trying to engage all six local authorities in East Sussex at once.

But he cautioned against expectations of saving huge sums of money through co-operation.

Wealden’s Cabinet committee is expected to sign up to joint working with Rother when it meets next Wednesday, December 15.