Right now, in many parts of England, there are two or more levels of council:
- County councils: These cover larger areas and deal with things like education, social care, and transportation.
- District or borough councils: These cover smaller areas within counties and handle things like local planning, housing, and waste collection.
- Unitary councils: These provide all council services for their area.
- Parish and town councils: These councils may look after very local amenities such as allotments, public clocks, play areas and equipment.
In Staffordshire, we have:
- Staffordshire County Council, which covers the whole of Staffordshire.
- Eight district and borough councils. These are Cannock Chase District Council, East Staffordshire Borough Council, Lichfield District Council, Newcastle Under-Lyme Borough Council, South Staffordshire District Council, Stafford Borough Council, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and Tamworth Borough Council.
- A unitary council – Stoke-on-Trent City Council. They are responsible for providing all council services in their area.
- And 180 town or parish councils.
Local government reorganisation will see Staffordshire’s existing county, city, district and borough councils replaced with fewer unitary councils. Unitary councils provide all council services for a given area.
Exactly what this looks like will be decided by the government.
