The talks come just twelve months after Breckland and South Holland appointed a joint chief executive and six months after they merged their management teams, a move which has created year on year savings of more than £1m.
It is believed that if the management merger across three local authorities goes ahead it will be the first of its kind in UK local government.
It will lead the way in shaping how district councils work with elected executive cabinets, achieve improved value for money from the investment in senior managers, provide greater resilience to the councils when this is needed and, in addition, provide further savings for Breckland and South Holland and create savings for Great Yarmouth.
Steve Ames, Leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said: “Breckland and South Holland District Councils have demonstrated the way in which shared management can work and my council is delighted to be able to seize this opportunity to explore working with them.
“This offers Great Yarmouth the chance to develop greater resilience and it will give access to a wider range of management skill and experience, allied to better recruitment and retention prospects.
“Local government is changing rapidly and these talks put Great Yarmouth in the vanguard of this change. We are taking control of our destiny and ensuring that this authority is structured in a way that can meet the challenges we face head on.
“These are difficult times and it is only by looking to adopt new and innovative ways of working that we can create the organisation and savings needed to continue to provide the quality services valued by our residents.”
William Nunn, Leader of Breckland Council, said he now expected talks to progress at a pace.
He said: “During the initial stages of discussion the focus of our efforts will be to determine how a shared management team can work efficiently and effectively over the three authorities.
“We hope that by the end of 2011 we will have been able to conclude what the shared management structure will look like so that we can push ahead with proposals and a report in early 2012.
“We are acutely aware as we enter these talks that there will inevitably be a period of uncertainty for staff at all three authorities.
“We will endeavour to deal with all issues that arise in a sensitive, consultative and timely manner.”
The concept of sharing a single management team over three authorities breaks new ground in local government thinking but Gary Porter, Leader of South Holland District Council, said: “Our aim is to ensure that we keep locally accountable elected member representation at the heart of local government whilst still making the savings that our communities expect us to make and at the same time protecting the services that they care about.”
