Leicestershire County Council has submitted its plan for the future of local politics - with North West Leicestershire District Council part of the re-organisation.

Council leaders have said they believe there should be one council for Leicestershire – instead of the eight councils which govern the county now – with a separate authority for the city.

They said their proposal would protect services, save the most money out of all the possible restructuring plans put forward for Leicestershire and "reduce confusion over who does what" if it is the option taken forward.

The county council's plan is one of three plans submitted to the Government last week amid widespread disagreement among our political leaders over the future make-up of local democracy in Leicestershire.

The submissions – one from the county council, one from Leicestershire's district and borough councils and one from Leicester City Council – have been made after the Government said it wanted all areas with a two-tier system of local democracy to reduce it to a single-tier set up.

Leicestershire falls into that category because it is served by both Leicestershire County Council and the seven district and borough councils - which includes North West Leicestershire.

However, a single-tier structure does not necessarily mean just one council for Leicestershire, which is proving the crux of the disagreement between the county council and the districts and boroughs. The heads of the districts believe the county would be better served by two councils, split on a roughly north-south divide. They have submitted their own plan to the Government based on that approach.

County council leaders have said they feel that two councils would split into two the services the authority currently offers to all Leicestershire residents, such as social care. That would result in a "very complex transition that heightens the risk of disruption to service delivery", their submission stated.

They also said they feared that two county councils would result in a "postcode lottery" when it came to the level of service residents received, depending on which council area they ended up in.

Savings would also be less, county leaders said. District leaders disagree, saying they believe that two councils would allow services to remain closer to the people who use them, and would allow communities to retain more of their own separate identities.

However, Leicestershire County Council said that if its plan was taken forward, it would create 'area committees', including for planning and licensing responsibilities, and support town and parish councils to take on more of a role in service deliveries to help keep decision-making local.

The heads of the district and borough councils also said they believed their plan could deliver around £43 million of savings each year, although some of this would be through reworking services to focus on prevention rather than on tackling issues after they had already happened.

In comparison, the leaders of the county council believe their single-council approach would save £30 million. They have branded the districts' and boroughs' calculations "highly optimistic", adding that they believed a two-council set up would only save around £17 million a year.

The county council also disagrees with the proposal Leicester City Council has submitted to the Government. While the city council is also advocating for a one-council structure for Leicestershire, its scheme would see a huge expansion of Leicester's borders, with a number of towns and villages around the city's edges moved within its boundaries.

Leicestershire County Council and the district and boroughs want the city's boundary to stay as it is, with no expansion into what is currently county council territory. Under all three submitted schemes, Leicester would remain separate.

County leaders said they believed a city expansion would impact county residents financially, because all areas of the county currently pay less in council tax than city residents, while the county council would also lose income. They also believe changing borders would increase the cost and complexity of the reorganisation, as services and assets would need to be transferred between councils.

The full interim plan can be read on the council's 'One Council' webpage. Full plans need to be agreed and submitted to the Government by November, with consultation on these expected to take place over the summer.