In his regular blog for Caerphilly Observer South Wales East AM Lindsay Whittle gives his take on recent news.
The Senedd
I spoke about the Williams Commission report on local government reorganisation during a Plaid Cymru led a debate in the Senedd about public service and the importance of governance and delivery.
I believe the report completely underplays the costs involved. There is a fleeting mention of £100m yet Williams says nothing about the cost and impact on staff in terms of redundancy.
I have been privileged to have been an elected representative on five different levels, for over 39 years, and have witnessed during my lifetime two local government reorganisations.
But what is most important to the public is the quality of the services provided.
The report makes no reference to previous local government reorganisations in Wales and how, and if, they have led to improved services, or otherwise.
What the Williams report also does not mention, and what is critical, is that local authorities need to not only engage more with their staff, but treat them with respect, and not impose a pay freeze while making huge increases to senior executives’ pay. That is what has brought us, perhaps, to the mess that we are all in. Efficiency and performance in the public sector will never improve if staff are demoralised.
I mentioned the importance of town and community councils, which need to be merged, enlarged and made consistent across Wales. We need to empower our communities and it would enable many of those authorities to function properly, in a professional way, and to have a decent budget.
Plaid would like to see full-scale reform of that particular community layer of government.
During First Minister’s questions last week, I raised the issue of the support Plaid Cymru’s call for a Disability Commissioner for Wales has had from disabled people, families and campaign and pressure groups who speak on behalf of those with disabilities.
A Commissioner would ensure that services for disabled children and young people are consistently improved and that we have an impartial advocate to monitor the services.
I was very surprised to hear the Minister for Communities state that there is no call from the major disability groups for a Commissioner considering last year Disability Cymru, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Scope and SNAP Cymru all gave my office their backing in principle for the idea. It would then give people a sense of belonging to that particular area.
I have just received the White Paper and have, so far, skimmed its content. Even so there are points which are of concern. It proposes a merger of Caerffili with Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent, which I believe would not deliver a council with a balanced demographics and ignores the history of the community.
This reorganisation, as Lindsay mentions, does not derive any lessons from previous reorganisations regarding the positives and negatives of previous changes. The tone of the document is that, somehow, the community will henceforth be better served and represented. Paragraph 33. (below) gives an insight into the thinking of the authors.
“The people who make decisions on our behalf need to be in tune with and
representative of their communities, and understand their needs, but the majority of Councillors in Wales are over 60 years of age, less than a third are women, and 99 in every 100 is white.”
Lindsay is over 60 years old, male and white so he ticks none of the boxes for eligibility as a councillor in this report, despite his decades of service and his reputation as an effective councillor and stalwart representative of the people of his ward. This, in my mind, is a very dangerous and narrow minded policy. Why should, for instance, a 25 year old black woman be a better representative for the Asians, East Europeans and the long established Welsh? Sounds simplistic and badly thought out to me.
Our South Wales community is made up of a diverse mix originally from various countries and has been since the 19th century when English, Irish, Indian and Africans settled here during the coal industry boom. Later came large numbers of Italians and, after WWII Polish people. All these people have an opportunity to stand for election and have a duty to represent all the people in their ward, regardless of race, religion or age. To have it otherwise is a very dangerous departure from democracy. Lindsay is seen, by this report, as unsuitable for office due to his gender, skin colour and age. I disagree, I have voted for him in the past and would have no qualms about doing so again; despite his being, apparently, an anachronism.
I don’t know the fine details of the Williams Report, but surely Wales does not require 22 councils for a population of just over 3 million when the West Midlands which has a population of over 5 million only has 8 councils.
That is true but it is important to draw the council boundaries with regard to their future efficiency and the past history of local government. I am not satisfied that this has been done which may produce an unsatisfactory result, as has been the case with previous reorganisations.
Caerphilly cbc is not a disabled friendly council at all. Free parking spaces in blackwood amount to 4 only on a very steep hill.
Ideas needed please!
13 Jul 2014 — As you are aware there is a meeting on the 16 July 2014 at 2.00 pm at Penallta House to discuss the opposing of car parking charges.
It would be useful to have some ideas for proposals we could put forward to the Cabinet as alternative ways of funding the parks, this would then strengthen our argument.
One idea I have thought of is utilising the Community Payback Scheme, that would save money on maintenance of the park, a second one is maybe fund raising events.
Can you please help with ideas?
Please e-mail me at lhwpersonal@icloud.com
I am currently putting a skeleton argument together that will be presented to the Cabinet by a Councillor as per procedure, who is Mr Colin Mann, subject to permission being given for us to have a spokesperson.
It would be useful to have some volunteers to read through my draft for your opinion and input.
I need your support if we are really going to argue this case to the best of our ability. We can’t just say we oppose the car parking charges, we have to say why and give alternative suggestions to funding, because we all know the Council is faced with £14 million cutbacks and car parking charges is an easy target for money.