Concerns about a supposed ‘done deal’ in Gloucestershire’s local government reorganisation have been eased after Gloucestershire County Council clarified that a recent change to the council name appearing in automated meeting email notifications was simply an error.
Earlier this month, recipients of meeting updates noticed the council name showed as “Gloucestershire Council” rather than the official “Gloucestershire County Council.” This fueled speculation that the county was transitioning to a unitary authority, in line with government plans for local government devolution and restructure across England.
Currently, Gloucestershire’s local governance is divided between the County Council and six district or borough councils. Proposed reforms could merge these into fewer, larger unitary authorities. Three configurations are under consideration: a single countywide council; a split between eastern and western Gloucestershire; or a larger Gloucester-centered council with additional unitary bodies surrounding it.
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However, Gloucestershire County Council has confirmed this email naming anomaly arose from a technical change rather than administrative restructuring. The council recently switched from hosting its Modern.Gov automated notifications on an in-house server to a cloud-based system managed by the software provider. This transition caused the provider’s system to incorrectly list the sender as “Gloucestershire Council.”
A council spokesperson commented, “It appears they must have set us up on their system as Gloucestershire Council – which isn’t correct so we’re getting it rectified.”
This explanation should reassure residents that no official changes to local government structure have yet taken place, despite ongoing discussions about possible reforms.