Governance in Staffordshire -changing times?

 Yes another more current affairs post but a bit more localized and in places bitter.

Current the area that is served by Staffordshire is serviced in two very different ways depending in which of the areas below you fall into and part of the complications come from the post 1974 changes that detached much of the south of the county from the area to the left of that which remained.

2: Newcastle Under Lyme

3: Staffordshire Moorlands

4:Stafford Borough

5: East Staffordshire (Uttoxeter,Rocester and Burton)

6: South Staffordshire (Detached Black Country)

7: Cannock Chase D.C.

8: Lichfield D.C.

9: Tamworth B.C

All 8 of these councils do provide services themselves but are overarched by another authority Staffordshire County Council who provide schools, social services, education, waste disposal and so on.

1: is Stoke On Trent - the city boundary which does everything with one council.

Central Goverment has called for whole of Administrative Staffordshire to be re-organized believing it would be more efficient and less confusing to have one or perhaps two single councils covering the area providing all of the services.

To complicate things it wants a overarching Combined Authority  over all of that but the patchwork of existing ones is messy from the original idea of more vast regional ones such as Greater Manchester and West Midlands to talk of almost a former county council area being one like Cheshire and Warrington or Cumbria which is quite small.

Really goverment should of had a blueprint for English Devolution from day one that set the broad boundaries - would a more focussed Black County, South Staffs D.C and Telford combined authority of  made more sense  and left Birmingham, Solihull, Coventry and Warwickshire  to form another?

Staffordshire County Council favours a Unitary Donut just the the 8 Staffordshire District leaving Stoke totally detached as it feels it cause least disruption to existing arrangements but those arranges create difficulties for Education and especially Social Services where clients and and facilities don't align with council boundaries.

That was and remains a major issue from when Stoke became a unitary authority and buildings were in what was now the "wrong" council area.

To me that makes little sense.

It really comes down to a unitary all nine councils of the ceremonial county, removing that issue or splitting into North Staffordshire (area1,2,3 and possibly part of the old Stone Rural area) covering the whole of the conurbation I'm in and a Southern Staffs comprising of 4,5,6,7,8 and 9 looking more as that area and its needs.

The entireity being a Combined Authority for more wide ranging structural planning although to be honest Codsall, Wombourne and Perton in the South Staffordshire D.C. area especially are very much in the Wolverhampton and Dudley travel to work area and things connected around economic needs really align there than one that would have the "Greater Stoke/Newcastle" area as it's #1 priority and much work is planned with Wolverhampton council anyway.