Welsh Education Minister Leighton Andrews and Local Government Minister Carl Sargeant have been accused by Plaid AM Lindsay Whittle of acting like bullies over plans to make councils share certain services.
The South Wales East AM told delegates at the party’s conference in Llandudno: “Local government is under threat from certain ministers in Cardiff. Carl Sargeant and Leighton Andrews are without doubt the bullies in the school yard.
“I accept Ministers have a duty but they should harness the experience of local government and work with them.
“The real people who scrutinise local government are the electorate themselves. They have the opportunity to say: you have done a good job or a bad job, not ministers in Cardiff Bay. They do not have a mandate to do what they are doing.”
He said that local government needed to ensure council taxpayers were getting value for money and they didn’t need the threat of mergers.
He added: “Wholesale reorganisation of local government would be too costly and distract from the effort to provide services. Boundary changes should only be made on a case by case basis and not through a one size fits all.”
The Welsh Government wants some council services to be shared across local authority boundaries in the hope it will improve them by cutting overall costs.
I am of the opinion of where Wales is so small and where we have our own assembly why do we need so many local authorities anyhow? I'm sure the assembly, given the administrative infrastructure could manage it all. I have heard arguments for and against reducing the number of local authorities and to be honest the for arguments are more appealing.
If this is reducing the number of LA's in wales through the back door, sod it, go through the front and kick it down at the same time.
Regarding Mr. Rees' comment I think he is right in saying that duplication is pointless but take an opposing view of the solution. Instead of abolishing local authorities why not do away with the Welsh Assemby?
I voted for the assembly but it has not had success in improving the prosperity of the Welsh people, the reverse in fact. A worthwhile experiment that has failed. I am critical of council shortcomings but, by and large, councils deliver the services required and are cheaper than the Welsh assembly, which absorbs a considerable percentage of Welsh GDP for very little gain.
Every AM, and there are 60 of them, is paid a salary roughly comparable with a council leader. If the assembly were abolished, and council leaders were paid the remuneration current for similar responsibily in manufacturing (About half of what they are actually paid)I calculate, taking into acount the buildings the WA uses, there would be around (minimum) £48 million per annum freed up for services in Wales.
Not a huge sum by local authority standards, Caerffili has an annual budget of £316 million, but a substantial sum to apply, annually, to sectors of the Welsh economy that desperately need help.