by political editor Paul Francis

A radical plan that would see local councils taking charge of some health services and police affairs has been unveiled by the leader of Kent County Council.

The blueprint for change sets out a range of measures that - if implemented it's claimed - could save the taxpayer as much as £21billion over three to five years.

Cllr Paul Carter said his plan would represent a radical shift of power to councils away from unelected regional quangos.

The masterplan recommends dividing the country into 46 sub-regions, broadly based on county and city boundaries.

He said the move was vital if people were to renew their interest in local services and help overcome public apathy that had increased as a direct result of a proliferation of quangos, like Regional Development Agencies such as SEEDA.

In his report, entitled "Bold Steps for Radical Reform" he cites the example of the Greater London Assembly as the kind of model that could work in other regions. He states:

"It is perhaps unsurprising therefore that given this complicated network of service providers that the public has become apathetic and detached from local decision-making processes."

As well as scrapping a host of regional quangos, he suggests that primary care trusts and the work of police authorities could be taken over by councils.

On health, he says that there could be greater links between social services and health if councils took on the job done by Primary Care Trusts.

"There is no reason why the function of Primary Care Trusts should not be brought back under local government purview."

On police, councillors could exercise the same function as local police authorities.

He said local councils had shown the way in innovating and had proved more resilient than many other parts of the public sector.

The report concludes: "Not only has local government as a sector improved over the last ten years as a whole, but the reality, is that local authorities are already at the leading edge of innovative service design and radical thinking about how they will operate over the next 10-20 years."