16/07/2026
Amber Valley Liberal Democrats slam government decision to split Amber Valley local authority area in local government reorganisation.
Current Chair of Amber Valley Lib Dems, Barry Holliday said:
"This is a ridiculous decision taken by the 'lame duck Labour' government. This decision ignores the wishes of local residents who voted overwhelmingly to reject the idea of Amber Valley being split and the will of the elected councillors of Amber Valley Borough Council who also voted overwhelmingly to keep Amber Valley together and placed within the new northern Unitary Authority.
"The current idea of local government reorganisation is farcical, it wasn't in any party manifesto at the general election, there is no mandate for it, there is no desire for it across the country and there is no reason behind it! The current local government structure has worked perfectly well since the 1970s and it follows logical boundaries, for the most part, between local communities and towns.
"The whole thing is wrongly badged as devolution along with elected metro style mayor's, but is in reality centralisation of local powers away from the residents and closer to Central government. Liberals believe that decisions should be taken at the closest level possible to the people it affects, the new authories could mean decisions affecting residents in Ripley being taken by councillors from Glossop, or residents in Smalley affected by councillors from Swadlincote.
"This smells more of gerrymandering the borders of authorities under the false guise of cost efficency to better suit the 2 party "back and forth" that we suffer from in the UK. Our politics is broken, we desperately need to replace our voting system with a proportional one that better represents the true multi party system the country and Derbyshire needs and this new authority system will break it further! It will not achieve the cost savings hoped for and local borough and district councils have already lost millions of hours looking at these bizarre and unnecessary proposals.
"We implore the Labour controlled Amber Valley Borough council to make urgent representations to the Labour government to abide by the views of the local residents and the borough council and if this ludicrous idea of new Unitary Authoritys has to be followed through then its done in a way which represents the will of the people it affects.
"In the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby in Yes Minister! - "If you're going to do this damned silly thing, don't do it in this damned silly way"."
For more info see here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewrln415lko?at_link_id=9F46087E-8106-11F1-AF1D-AF5616E13C71&at_link_origin=BBC_Derby&at_medium=social&at_ptr_name=facebook_page&at_campaign_type=owned&at_link_type=web_link&at_format=image&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_bbc_team=editorial&fbclid=Iwb21leATFuHBjbGNrBMW4bWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHuy2VRn0Ueh8Tbbn2pzY5EhNh6FXjeycVMwj9Pd6eoUIPJ2O4sU0MI5MlKDy_aem_hfvMCLfIDM09uwqTzwNu6Q
Local government reorganisation (LGR) will see a council for the north and another for the south, with parts of Amber Valley split.
