MP pledge to tackle border issues in area

Whilst on the campaign trail, Mr Spencer had numerous residents from Bestwood Village raise concerns about council services claiming their cross boundary position was creating chaos and unnecessary costs.

The MP is now pushing for changes to local council boundaries to tackle the issue.

“Ashfield and Gedling councils share the provision of services, and in practise this means that residents on opposite sides of Moor Road in the village are dealt with by different councils with varying services on different days,” explained Mr Spencer.

“It makes no sense at all for Gedling to be sending their teams out down one side of the road, just for Ashfield to then send their own group out to do the same job on the opposite side the following day.

“It costs money and means there’s no consistency in terms of the quality of the work that gets done.”

The MP has now written to both councils to see what they can come up with, or what they can do in terms of maybe a shared service or a boundary change that would simplify things and make the services in the village better and cheaper.

Whilst such reviews are normally a subject for the Local Government Boundaries Commission, the MP says he will fight hard to see improvements to life for local residents.

A Gedling Council spokesman said: “We’ve been speaking with Ashfield District Council about this particular area and we’re exploring opportunities within the Nottinghamshire Waste Partnership to see where we can improve cross boundary working.”