POLITICIANS in Cumbria are divided on plans to reform local Government ahead of the publication of Whitehall's ‘devolution and local recovery’ white paper.

The County Councils Network (CCN) report released yesterday said abolishing 213 smaller councils in England and replacing them with 25 new local authorities could save almost £3bn over five years.

It claims that a single unitary in each area would "reduce complexity and give communities a single unified voice to government".

The report found that replacing county and districts with two authorities in each area would reduce the financial benefit to £1bn over five years, while three unitary authorities - which would be responsible for all the current functions of county and district councils - would deliver a net loss of £340m over the same period.

A fourth scenario of a two-unitary and children’s trust model in each county would deliver a net five year saving of £269m.

Political leaders in Cumbria are waiting to be invited to apply to the Government for the county's devolution deal. Once invited they will have a better understanding of what form of reform will be acceptable.

Vocal devolution advocate Mike Starkie, who is the elected mayor of Copeland, is confident of achieving a deal by 2022.

"My preference is a combined solution of two unitary authorities with an overarching authority run by an elected mayor for Cumbria," he explained.

"There is going to be considerable challenges seeking combined agreement for the makeup of the unitary authorities."

Mr Starkie is keen for the process to be kickstarted so the upcoming Cumbria County Council elections can be delayed.

"You only have to look at Tees Valley and the impact of devolution there," continued the mayor.

"They have gone in and were given huge Government funding going forward. It is the Government's preferred model of local governance. We missed our chance in 2016 when we turned out backs on it, but we can't afford to turn our back this time. At the moment we are waiting for the invite to prepare suggestions. We can have local government reforms by 2022 and a devolution deal and elected mayor by 2023."

Less certain of the need for devolution right now is the leader of Eden Council, Virginia Taylor.

"We can all work more effectively and cooperatively but I think district councils are really close to the people they serve and the bigger unitarary authorities don't have so many councillors (relative to the area covered).

"If you look at the document by Colin Copus his figures suggest the number of people per councillor is double in the UK when compared with European countries already.

"When you have a unitary authority and you have several councillors for a large area, they won't have as much time to spend with you." The Liberal Democrat councillor questioned whether it was the right time for the authority's officers to be focussing on a shake-up of local democracy.