Ten Derbyshire councils to be replaced with two with a north-south divide, the Government has decided

Derbyshire County Council headquarters at County Hall in Matlock. Image from Eddie Bisknell.

Derbyshire’s ten councils will be scrapped and replaced with two councils along a north-south divide, the Government has decided.

In the biggest council shakeup for 50 years, today (July 16th), the Labour Government has announced that Derbyshire County Council, Derby City Council and the eight districts and boroughs will all be scrapped.

It has chosen to replace these 10 councils with two authorities, one to cover the northern half of Derbyshire and one for the southern half, with Amber Valley to be cut in two.

The split will see Bolsover, Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales and North East Derbyshire councils abolished and, with the upper half of Amber Valley (21 parishes), will form the northern council.

Meanwhile, Derby, Erewash and South Derbyshire councils will be scrapped and will form the southern council with the lower half of Amber Valley (14 parishes).

The Amber Valley split chosen by the Government includes Belper, Denby, Duffield, Horsley, Horsley Woodhouse, Kedleston, Kilburn, Kirk Langley, Mackworth, Quarndon, Shipley and Smalley being pulled into the southern council, while all other areas of Amber Valley will be in the northern council.

That option had been proposed by Chesterfield, Derby, Erewash and High Peak, the most preferred by any of the current councils.

Council leaders were only told of the decision minutes before the formal announcement was due to be made by Government, with frustrations throughout the process about councils being forced to abolish their own organisations against their will or “turkeys voting for Christmas”, selecting “least worst” options.

Following the decision, work will now start to close down the existing 10 councils and move services over to the two new authorities.

Elections to the “shadow” authorities will take place in May 2027, with the new councils being officially formed and taking over control from April 1st, 2028, and the current councils being abolished on May 31st, 2028.

Councillors Stephen Reed (Ref), deputy county council leader, said: “This outcome is not in the best interests of the people of Derbyshire. It leaves the new northern unitary authority at risk of becoming the poor cousin to the south.

“We believe this decision goes against the Government’s own criteria and fails to deliver the savings, efficiencies and stability that local government reorganisation was meant to provide.

“This looks like political gerrymandering. Steve Reed MP has chosen options put forward by Labour-run councils across the East Midlands, based on protecting political control rather than doing what is right for local people.

“While we are deeply disappointed by the decision, our focus now has to be on securing the best possible outcome for all Derbyshire residents.

“But we remain concerned that, over the next decade or two, a weakened northern unitary authority could be vulnerable to being swallowed up by Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire or the new southern Derbyshire authority.”

The Government is providing £900,000 to each of the new councils to allow for initial setup costs, while Derbyshire authorities have already set aside hundreds of thousands of pounds for the process, with the county council earmarking £5 million.

This comes a week after the chief executives of the current 10 Derbyshire councils wrote a joint letter to the Government raising significant concerns about the local government reorganisation processes, saying proposed savings had all but disappeared.

They said the continued deterioration of council finances now meant the new councils would start off in a worse position than anticipated, though still better than if they continued as is without a merger.

This includes an expected year three black hole yearly deficit of £42 million, plunging to £78 million, while the status quo would lead to a £90 million annual deficit.

Amber Valley quickly became the deciding factor between competing north and south divide options, with one option to push it into the north – which the borough council supported – one to push it into the south, and a couple to split it along differing lines, splitting key towns into separate bodies.

This was seen as an economic and housing land grab by local councillors who feared the southern council would become a “Greater Derby” model, while the north would lose all ability to support itself.

All councils mentioned in their debates that they bemoaned being landed with Derby’s housing and financial pressures, with fears that all focus will be on the city.

Amber Valley’s Labour leader Councillor Chris Emmas-Williams had called it a “bridge too far” after the districts and city had agreed not to support the carve-up of existing council geographies.

Erewash’s Conservative opposition leader, Councillor Wayne Major, had said the north/south divide risked turning the north into an “economic basketcase”.

Meanwhile, the county council – run by Reform – had suggested replacing the 10 councils with just one authority for the all geographical patch, but this has been rejected by the Government.

There are currently 447 councillors across the eight councils and the pitch for the north/south divide had been a reduction to 148 councillors.

The boroughs and city council – which had combined on their research but selected different options for final submission – had said the north-south divide would cost up to £25 million to set up.

Council documents on the research behind the options show the chosen reshuffle selected by Government would see two councils of near equal population size, with the northern council containing 539,000 people and the southern authority containing 538,000.

However, the geographical split is stark, with the northern council covering 2,012 square kilometres, and the southern council a quarter of the coverage at 617 square kilometres.