Back to the future, 8 councils for Wales

[cibwr]

Well we finally sort of have a map for the new councils to replace the current 22 local authorities in Wales - with 8! (or maybe 9)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-33152714

[Deleted]

To be called "North East", " North West ", " Central "....

[greatkingrat]

To be called Gwynedd, Clwyd, Powys, Dyfed, etc I assume

[Deleted]

Jun 16, 2015 17:20:38 GMT greatkingrat said:

To be called Gwynedd, Clwyd, Powys, Dyfed, etc I assume

I mock, of course.

[Penddu]

Back to 1966 almost - only exception is that Rhymney Valley part of Caerphilly was in MidGlamorgan and now in Gwent.....and was Colwyn Bay Area previously in Clwyd before - now in Gwynedd?

[Davıd Boothroyd]

The original proposal in the 1967 white paper (Cmnd 3340) was for five counties and three county boroughs. Gwynedd was then split in two to create Clwyd, and the county boroughs were incorporated into Glamorgan which was split into three.

[Richard Allen]

Jun 16, 2015 21:56:20 GMT Penddu said:

Back to 1966 almost - only exception is that Rhymney Valley part of Caerphilly was in MidGlamorgan and now in Gwent.....and was Colwyn Bay Area previously in Clwyd before - now in Gwynedd?

The major difference of course is that these would be unitary authorities.

[cefin]

So basically the half wits who constantly tinker with local authority set ups in Wales have struck again.

It will mean if implemented I will have lived in Glamorgan, South Glamorgan, Vale of Glamorgan and presumably soon Cardiff and the Vale without moving a yard.

Which demonstrates only one thing, the complete and utter morons responsible for these expensive changes haven't a clue what they are doing!

We've had the disaster of moving up to 22 Health authorities reversed back to 7 because it was such a mess proposed of course by one Paul Williams who most sane people wouldn't let anywhere near another paid gig at the heart of any commission examining or proposing anything following the health disaster.

Yet the Welsh assembly let him come up with another dogs dinner which they have partly ignored anyway, his previous health reforms were carried out by the incompetent Jane Hutt who was finally removed as Health minister by Rhodri after a reign of total and utter disaster.

She of course went on to weave her magic in the continuance of our increasingly failing education system before unbelievably ending up as Wales' finance minister, how bad do you actually have to be to get booted out of any position or responsibility in the Welsh assembly?

The local authority reforms have been handed to serial failure Leighton Andrews the star who has presided over Wales' accelerated slide down the PISA rankings before being forced to resign over his hypocrisy in campaigning to save his local school which was recommended for closure by his own department.

I predict yet another round of massive pay offs to highly paid Local authority executives who will soon after walk back into Welsh assembly funded jobs to join those six figure pa executives still on the books because of their guaranteed 10 year contracts following the health authority reduction.

And no doubt I'll be gearing up to live in my 5th different county without moving a yard in another 20 years or so.


Whilst those responsible for the constant financially crippling changes sail merrily on drawing their highly paid taxpayer funded salaries without any fear of recrimination over their constant failures.

[Penddu]

Am I being cynical in thinking that the only reason that it has been suggested that a 9th council could be created by merging Conwy with Denbighshire would be to give the Connservatives an opportunity to control one of the councils.......

MidGlam and West Glam and Gwent would be Labour controlled
A smaller Clwyd would be Labour controlled, but maybe not control a larger Clwyd
A smaller Gwynedd would be Plaid control, but probably not control a larger Gwynedd
Dyfed would be NOC but with Plaid largest party
Powys would probably stay independent
South Glam should be NOC but with Labour largest party

[Deleted]

Leighton Andrews has already thrown out a merger of Conwy and Denbeighshire which is now proposed as the possible 9th Council.

I agree with much of what cefin says. We will be repeating the whole shooting match in 20 years time.

[Tony Otim]

Jun 17, 2015 12:18:18 GMT @davedare said:

I agree with much of what cefin says.

[Deleted]

[afleitch]

If the Conservatives weren't stupid on such matters, they could propose STV in line with these changes.

[Harry Hayfield]

All numbers refer to percentage of total membership of council)

Gwynedd: Plaid Cymru 37%, Independents 32%, Labour 10%, Conservatives 8%, Llais Gwynedd 8%, Liberal Democrats 5% (Likely result: No Overall Control)
Clwyd: Labour 43%, Independents 32%, Conservatives 13%, Liberal Democrats 7%, Plaid Cymru 5% (Likely result: No Overall Control)
Powys: Independents 65%, Conservatives 14%, Liberal Democrats 13%, Labour 8% (Likely Result: Independent win)
Dyfed: Independents 45%, Plaid Cymru 30%, Labour 19%, Liberal Democrats 5%, Conservatives 2% (Likely Result: No Overall Control)
West Glamorgan: Labour 74%, Liberal Democrats 9%, Plaid Cymru 6%, Independents 4%, Conservatives 3%, Swansea Independents 2%, Ratepayers 1%, Social Democrats 1% (Likely Result: Labour win)
Mid Glamorgan: Labour 75%, Independents 9%, Plaid Cymru 6%, Liberal Democrats 5%, Conservatives 2%, Swansea Independents 1%, Merthyr Tydfil Independents 1%, Ratepayers 0%, UKIP 0% (Likely Result: Labour win)
South Glamorgan: Labour 56%, Conservatives 15%, Liberal Democrats 13%, Plaid Cymru 7%, Independents 5%, Llanwit Independents 4%, Heath Independents 1%, UKIP 1% (Likely Result: Labour win)
Gwent: Labour 64%, Conservatives 13%, Independents 13%, Plaid Cymru 9%, Liberal Democrats 2% (Likely Result: Labour win)

[piperdave]

The costs of reorganisation will almost certainly outweigh the savings. I can't help but wonder if public services might get on better if they were left to actually work out how to do the job well and not be given another change or reform every 5 minutes. Sometimes I think we should bring back 40 days' notice to call a Parliament that sits for a week, perhaps two, and then adjourns and another 40 days' notice is required before the politicians can interfere with anything again.

[Sibboleth]

Hardly a case of if it ain't broke don't fix it though: the current system of local government in Wales has been a disaster since the Major government drew it up on the back of a fag packet. I'm not sold on massive unitaries as the solution (surely the least metropolitan region of Great Britain should have local government that reflects the fact?) but...

[thirdchill]

Jun 17, 2015 17:53:48 GMT afleitch said:

If the Conservatives weren't stupid on such matters, they could propose STV in line with these changes.

Would agree with this. Would almost certainly give a wider selection of local candidates for people to choose from in the more rural areas.

[Georg Ebner]

So LAB with its love for unitaries restored (with Heseltine) the system of 1889 and now they reform the reform, inclusively separating Cardiff from the Valleys, what they opposed under Heath...

[Harry Hayfield]

Although it was not mentioned in this report, the community councils in Wales are also under a similar warning. In Ceredigion alone (42 county council members) there are 52 community councils (around 520 community councillors) and I suspect (in fact I am expecting) that we will go back to the rural and urban district councils (which in this neck of the woods will mean Aberaeron Rural District Council) which is HUGE!

[cibwr]

My main beef is that we have progressively been taking functions away from local government and handing them to unaccountable joint boards and nominated bodies, as people here know I would prefer a 5 region solution taking back those functions like health, fire, police, ambulance and combining them with the other big ticket items like social services, education and transport into regional elected authorities. Leaving other functions to a second tier of more local councils, housing, licensing, waste collection etc, and then at a local level community councils - which probably would see some mergers. This proposal does nothing to reconnect health and social services, divides Cardiff from the Valleys, where there is a clear case for integrated planning, and once again avoids the issue of democratic reform with replacing FPTP with STV.