Caerphilly County Borough Council could merge with Newport, Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen and Monmouth under Welsh Government plans published today, June 17.
Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews put forward a case for merging the 22 current councils into eight, similar to the pre-1966 arrangement.
His is also open to an option for nine local authorities.
Mr Andrews said “the case for fewer local authorities in Wales is compelling” and the merger would “drive funding into improving frontline services”.
He said: “We will drive down the cost of politics and administration in local government.
“I want to emphasise this is not a final decision. It is the next phase in our public debate. Following that, we will publish and consult on a draft ‘Mergers and Reform’ Bill in the autumn.”
The plans are already controversial after three proposed voluntary mergers were rejected by Mr Andrews in January.
The proposals, that come after The Williams Commission proposed cutting council to between ten and 12, have put Labour councils at odds with the party in Cardiff Bay.
Caerphilly County Borough Council has previously rejected calls to merge voluntarily vowing to stand alone.
Councillor Colin Man, leader of the Plaid Cymru group on Caerphilly County Borough Council said that “devolution should go further than Cardiff Bay”, adding “it should be about local accountability” and not centralisation.
Cllr Mann said: “The proposal for Gwent will create an unwieldy and disparate authority with resources inevitably being dragged to Newport to the detriment of people in the north of the county.
“The minister is proposing a return to the old Gwent authority but with the addition of around 100,000 residents in the county borough that were formally in the old Mid Glamorgan area.
“What about democracy and democratic responsibility in all of this? There seems to be no consideration at all of this issue.
“Hundreds of millions could be spent on re-organisation with no certainty whatsoever on longer-term savings. There is also the human cost with uncertainty for staff which may well lead to a detriment in services.
“This all comes at a time when authorities should be concentrating on delivering good quality services for the public, which they are trying to do with greatly reduced budgets.”
This is an idiotic idea, there is little in common between, Caerphilly and Newport or rural Monmouthshire. In Caerphilly we would lose out on services, the writing is on the wall, because the long term plans are for Caerphilly to be served by a local hospital in Cwmbran, two or three bus rides away.It would be far better to have the old pre 1974 Glamorgan County Council. In the past local Government has been reorganised at great cost by the Tories to destroy it. Now we have Labour playing the Tory game.
I have to agree, I can foresee yet another disastrous reorganisation in the offing. Perhaps this is deliberate in order to weaken local authorities for the benefit of the Welsh Assembly?
I do see a case for the reduction in the number of councils in order to
save on duplication and to safeguard people who currently live in a
local authority area that is too financially weak to provide services comparable to other authorities. But the town of Caerffili is not, and never has been historically, part of Gwent, Monmouthsire or Newport. Caerffili is a Glamorgan town that has been ill served by linking it with Gwent. Caerffili needs to return to Glamorgan.
Of course it’s a plan to weaken local government, the irony is that it has long been a Tory plan, now taken up by LabourLabour no doubt there will be gerrymandering to ensure Labour control. Over all it is a cynical plan to continue the rundown and decline of the old industrial hinterlands. Ever since 1974, I’ve thought the old County Council structure along with Urban Districts.
To be honest John since Caerphilly Borough was introduced the whole are has gone downhill very fast, by far Iswlyn was the best for the Valleys, They had Councillors who wold knock door-door, you always knew who to turn too if you had any issues nowadays the current crop of Councillors are not useful in anyway..
Oop`s and The Assembly Elections coming up next year.
It will give an even bigger pot of money for Labour and Plaid professionals to squander. Joy!
Whatever `secret agenda` anyone thinks may be behind these plans, the priority surely has to be to save public money, and eliminate waste?. Monmouthshire, Glamorgan, what really is the difference?.
I fully understand the historic sentiments for directing Caerphilly towards Glamorgan, But Why and for what benefits?
For what benefits? Health care, policing, law courts are some that come to mind.
It seems some Labour movers and shakers, in some local councils, are saying these reorganisation plans should proceed, `full steam ahead`. They point to the fact that local authorities are `bleeding to death`.
And with more Welsh Assembly financial settlements in the months are year to come to prove even less blood to bleed, it is difficult to understand how all the local Council`s in Wales can all replicate and duplicate the same services as each other.
Currently, the problem is nobody leading local Councils is wiling to make Council staff unemployed, and to be fair to them they did not enter local politics to reduce services, as a result, Leighton Andrews is prepsred to the dirty work for them, they will, I think, have to live with it.
It is also difficult to envisage residents, ratepayers, putting up any sort of fight against a proposal designed to save money and to streamline an obese civic service. I think it is difficult for local politicians to come forward with any opposition to the overarching proposals, if they do they would be accused of perochial and nepatistic grandstanding. They will all have to live with it and embrace the changes, agree with them or not.
I’ve got a solid idea on how to save millions of public money without sacrificing any public services. In fact it would release millions of quids and pounds to be spent on front line services in all council areas. Close down the assembly As removing an entire layer of government that costs us an absolute fortune is bound to save cash. We used to have two layers of government but now we have four, an end to our EU membership would save even more cash
Seems to be a realistic plan to me, I can’t see any benefits of belonging to the EU nor having an Assembly either. I made the mistake of voting for the Assembly at the start, thinking it would good for Wales. I have changed my mind on that one and will be voting to leave the EU superstate, that’s if we are ever given a free vote. I am still not convinced that will happen.
I voted for it back in the day as well mate. My old man told me that it wasn’t a good idea as it would be just an extra layer of government providing an extra layer of red tape that we would have to pay extra money for. Don’t be so naive dad, I said, it’s representation for the working Welsh man, how can that be bad? Hate it when he’s right.