A potential plan to pull Ashbourne out of the Derbyshire Dales and in with a new “Greater Derby” council has been met with “disgust” and dubbed “totally disastrous”.
Reform-run Derbyshire County Council has put forward four options for local government reorganisation, having previously pledged to refuse to take part.
It has backed two preferred options out of these four which would both see the county, including Derby, split into two northern and southern councils.
One of those preferred options would see Ashbourne removed from the rest of the Dales and pulled into the southern authority.
Cllr Stuart Lees, Conservative Group leader on Derbyshire Dales District Council and Ashbourne councillor, said: “That would be totally disastrous for Ashbourne. Derbyshire should stay together and Derby should stay together as they currently are.
“Nobody here wants to be in with Derby. The criticism has been very strong. I have not had anybody come to me and tell me it is a good idea. It is a bad option.
“Derbyshire Dales is a rural community. Derby is a city. The issues are very different and we will just be a little forgotten suburb.”
Cllr Peter Dobbs, Liberal Democrat, who also represents Ashbourne on the district council, said: “What the DCC Reform UK proposal fails to grasp is the nature of Ashbourne as a sizeable market town with its own rural hinterland.
“The town has much in common with the other similar towns in the Dales like Matlock and Wirksworth and much less in common with the city of Derby.
“My priority is for an option that delivers two acceptably-sized unitary authorities for Derbyshire and keeps the Dales intact.”
Last week, the majority of county councilors (Reform have a 42 out of 64 seat majority) adopted the preferred options of two north and south councils.
Cllr Nigel Gourlay, Conservative, had called for Reform to apologise to Ashbourne residents and to withdraw the option which would pull the town out of the rest of the Dales.
He had said: “Many in this room, from across Derbyshire, would have been surprised when they saw Ashbourne ripped out of the Derbyshire Dales and bundled into a new Greater Derby area.”
He said Cllr Steve Bull, who represents one of the two Ashbourne divisions, would be “horrified” at the plan.
Cllr Gourlay said: “The social problems of drug addiction, crime and family breakdown will now be supported through the council taxes of his neighbours.”
Cllr Alex Dale, Conservative Group leader on the county, said: “Ashbourne absolutely despises the proposal put forward here and won’t suffer it. The areas around Derby will only get crumbs from the table.”
Cllr Bull, Conservative, said: “The people of Ashbourne are totally and utterly disgusted. There is not a parish in Ashbourne South that has a connection with Derby city. We are nothing to do with the city.
“Ashbourne has got its own origins, its own history and 80 per cent away from the town is rural and they have no contact with Derby city.
“Ashbourne is certainly not a suburb of Derby moving forward.
“The residents want no part of being a suburb of Derby city. Please put Ashbourne back into the Derbyshire Dales.”
Cllr Alan Graves, the council’s Reform leader, who is also a Derby city councillor, said: “If you have got residents who are upset about this whole thing it is your responsibility to make sure they engage in this process.
“By saying I’m not going to vote all you are doing is throwing your dummies out of the pram. If that is how you want to represent your constituents, that is entirely up to you.
“I find it unbelievable that councillors in this council capitulate to Derby. Why do you feel that Derby is better than you?
“It is not a greater Derby, it is absolutely not a greater Derby, there is a bigger area around it, South Derbyshire, Erewash, Amber Valley.
“They are the bigger party to this. You are going to give an impression that they are in charge. I don’t see it that way.”
He said Conservatives were split on the issue between the county and city council, with Derby Tories said not to support the “doughnut” approach backed by the previous Conservative county administration.
Cllr Graves said: “At least Reform are all joined together and we all believe in one thing.”
However, when it came to the vote, of the 39 Reform councillors present – three were not at the meeting – two members did not vote in support with the rest of their group.
Cllr Joseph Turrell, Swadlincote West, voted against the plans, and Cllr Alex Millward, Linacre and Loundsley Green, abstained from the vote.
In the debate, Cllr Turrell had said: “I do not think it is a very good idea. It takes away a lot of local decision-making by taking away these districts.
“I think a lot of people, particularly my residents, are not happy with these changes.
“However, I do sympathise with our leader in the fact that our hands are really tied by this horrible Labour government which is telling local people what to do with their own areas.
“My first concern is the inclusion of Derby city with a lot of rural urban areas being left behind and perhaps neglected for priorities towards the city.”
He said unparished areas with no parish or town council – such as Swadlincote – needed to gain one quickly to keep local decision-making alive.
