COUNCILLORS have suggested that the process of splitting services between two new Cumbrian unitary authorities should be slowed down or even halted.

The concerns were raised at Monday’s (December 2) meeting of Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness councils’ joint overview and scrutiny committee at Cumbria House in Carlisle.

Members felt that slowing the process, which is known as disaggregation, would save a lot of unnecessary work by officers until there was more clarity over whether or not Cumbria will get a combined authority and elected mayor.

Both Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness were first formed in April last year and they replaced six borough and city councils as well as the former Cumbria County Council.

Alison Hatcher, the assistant chief executive of Westmorland & Furness Council, told members that so far a total of 21 services had been successfully disaggregated, with 10 remaining services still to be split between the two new councils.

She said it was the more complicated of complex services which were left and the target date for the registration service had been brought forward by 12 months, while occupational health had been put back by six months and the others were being progressed.

Councillor Roger Dobson (Corby and Hayton, Lib Dems) said he would not have thought occupational health would have been classed as “complicated” and Ms Hatcher said that would be areas such as financial systems and IT.

Councillor Matt Brereton (High Furness, Conservative) suggested the process of disaggregation could be slowed down, because of the possibility of the combined authority, and Cllr Dobson said he would support that move.

Ms Hatcher said that some services would either be split between the unitary authorities while some could be the responsibility of the combined authority if they could not be disaggregated.

In the report members were asked to consider the update of the disaggregation of hosted services to which they agreed.

The report states: “Under the Inter Authority Agreement (IAA) entered by Cumberland Council and Westmorland & Furness Council to govern the provision of hosted services, the Joint Executive Committee is responsible for the oversight and management of the hosted services including the development and implementation of disaggregation plans.

“In some cases, the disaggregation date detailed in the IAA has been changed to meet the needs of each council and to support effective service delivery.

“All proposed changes to disaggregation dates have been reported to the joint executive committee following completion of an options appraisal and consideration given to the ability for the service to disaggregate safely and legally.”