"In 40 or 50 years time these wrecks will be indistinguishable lumps of material on the seabed. They’re collapsing now, the clock's ticking."
"We've got to take our time with this. The last thing I want is for any council to have its sovereignty taken away," he said.Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner hopes disbanding the two-tier council system will save taxpayers money and make accessing services simpler.
But Green county councillor Matthew Jenkins said it would not solve the fundamental pressures that Worcestershire faced."A lot of the stuff the county council deals with needs major reform," he said.Adult care is not properly funded. children's services is kind of almost bankrupting the county council.
"So if this is just used as a way of saying, 'It's alright, if you go to unitary we'll solve these problems,' it won't."If progressed, the proposals to make Worcestershire unitary could mean county council elections – due to take place in May 2025 – being cancelled.
A further meeting, with council leaders from Worcestershire's six districts, was due to be held on Friday.
A trail of surreal sculptures of street furniture have been installed to celebrate the opening of new city centre workspaces.About 1,100 jobs have been put at risk with the news the van-making plant will close.
Simmons expressed regret a deal could not be secured to continue production in Luton.She said: "We know the unions and ourselves and MPs worked really hard to put different options to Stellantis to see if we could keep the plant open, they turned them all down unfortunately.
"Jonathan Reynolds [the Secretary of State for Business and Trade] talked to them. Even Keir Starmer talked to them and I believe grants opportunities were put on the table to Stellantis but I think they made their mind up. They were going to close this plant."A South Carolina man convicted of bludgeoning his ex-girlfriend's parents to death has become the first US death row inmate to be executed by firing squad in the last 15 years.