Joint East Midlands mayor plan would ‘consign Leicestershire to division two’
I hear very few rural voices in the machinations linked the current moving of the deck chairs around on the Titanic in terms of the latest round of (in terms of the real challenges we face) side show that is local government reform. As someone who has lived in the “East Midlands” region all my life I would suggest that this controversy is about Nottingham, Derby and Leicester… This story tells us:
Leaders in Leicestershire have expressed anger at the region being excluded from a first of its kind devolution deal for the east Midlands, saying it will be “relegated to the second division”.
On Tuesday, plans for a groundbreaking devolution deal between Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire were announced, which would see the areas grouped as a Mayoral Combined County Authority (MCCA), led by one mayor, and which would receive £1.14bn funding over 30 years.
The plans are part of a new devolution model that would be introduced once the levelling up and regeneration bill is passed, and it is hoped the first mayoral elections in the region would take place in May 2024.
But some said the exclusion of Leicestershire and Leicester, the most populous urban area in the east Midlands, situated about 30 miles south of Nottingham and Derby, would harm the region in the long term.