AS part of the move towards local government re-organisation, Hertfordshire’s two-tier system of a county council and 10 district and borough councils is expected to be replaced with a smaller number of unitary authorities by 2028 reports the Local Democracy Reporter.

And in recent months, leaders of Hertfordshire’s existing 11 councils have been looking at a number of unitary options for the future.

Last week, the leaders agreed on a draft joint submission to the Government that outlines three different options – that would see existing councils be replaced with two, three or four unitary authorities.

But before the document is submitted to the Government, each of the county’s 11 councils will have to determine which of the three options they support.

Ultimately, it will be the Government that determines which of the councils’ options to take forward – or whether to respond with an option of their own.

Here is a brief summary of each of the three options.

TWO UNITARY AUTHORITY OPTION

Under the first option, the county would be split into two unitary authorities – East and West.

In the East would be areas currently covered by Broxbourne, East Herts, North Herts, Stevenage and Welwyn Hatfield councils. In the West would be Dacorum, Hertsmere, St Albans, Three Rivers and Watford.

Each authority would serve a population of around 600,000, with a total of 234 councillors across the two authorities.

Estimates suggest the change could cut local government costs by around £50m a year, with estimated cumulative savings of between £366m and £418m in the first 10 years.

THREE UNITARY AUTHORITY OPTION

An alternative in the councils’ draft submission would be to split the county into three unitary authorities – East, West and Central.

Under this option, the East would include areas currently covered by Broxbourne, East Herts, North Herts and Stevenage councils.

The West would include areas currently covered by Dacorum, Three Rivers and Watford, as well as the Bushey North and Bushey South county council divisions.

And the Central authority would include areas currently covered by Hertsmere, St Albans and Welwyn Hatfield, without the county council divisions of Bushey North and Bushey South.

Populations in each of these three authorities would range between 350,000 and 480,000. And there would be 234 councillors overall.

Estimates suggest the three authority model could cut costs by between £181m and £258m in the first 10 years.

FOUR UNITARY AUTHORITY OPTION

In addition, the councils’ draft document includes proposals for the county to be split into four unitary authorities – West, South-West, Central and East.

The West would include areas currently covered by Dacorum and St Albans councils.

The South West would include areas currently covered by Hertsmere, Three Rivers and Watford councils.

Central would include the bulk of the existing North Herts and Welwyn Hatfield councils, as well as Stevenage.

And East would include areas currently covered by Broxbourne and East Herts councils, as well as the current North Herts wards of Arbury, Ermine, Royston Heath, Royston Meridian, Royston Palace and Weston and Sandon and the existing Welwyn Hatfield ward of Northaw and Cuffley.

Populations in these four unitary authorities would vary between 290,000 and 320,000. And, according to the proposal, there would be 327 councillors.

Estimates suggest that it could save £124m over the first 10 years.