Caerphilly County Borough Council and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council have announced plans to merge the the way they buy goods and services.
The neighbouring authorities want to merge their procurement to save money. This would mean the two councils buying together. This would cover everything from office stationary to multi-million pound contracts.
Caerphilly council is keen to work closely with Merthyr to help deliver an improved service while achieving efficiency savings.
In a joint statement, Cllr Colin Mann, deputy leader of Caerphilly Council and Cllr Julian Amos, cabinet member with portfolio for business and regulatory services of Merthyr council said: “We welcome this exciting opportunity to work in partnership to achieve efficiencies and improve services.
“This proposed collaborative approach supports the modernisation agenda in Welsh local government and we believe there are many opportunities to bring real benefits to the local council tax payer through this shared service approach.”
Caerphilly’s Cabinet will meet on February 23 to discuss the proposals.
If both councils agree the proposals, a project team will be established to develop a model of delivery.
It is anticipated that a transition to the new arrangements would take place between April and September 2012.
The move is part of a wider strategy by councils across Wales to work more closely together, a policy being pushed by the Welsh Government.
A good idea, but can I suggest the logical next step and put the clock back to 1974 and amalgamate all these petty councils and have one body in overall charge, and we already have a name, the Glamorgan County Council. Of course we would need a level of local government under the County Council and we could replace the Town Councils with the old Urban Districts. Imagine the money we`d save not having to pay high salaries to the duplicated council officers.
John Owen is absolutely right; the old Glamorgan County Council had some real financial clout and the Caerffili Urban District Council looked after the interests of the town and the villages surrounding it in a far better fashion than its successors. Change is not always progress and we struggle with a system inferior to that in existence forty years ago.