Simplify the following text for a Grade 12 native English-speaking person.
Original: The Department for Communities and Local Government has said that the seven district councils and the County Council will be abolished and a new unitary authority for the whole of the existing County Council area will be created .
Simplified: As part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England initiated by the Department for Communities and Local Government , the seven district councils within the County Council area were abolished . The County Council assumed their functions and became a unitary authority .