Fears on reduction of Community Councils
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Posts
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Although I received the invite to the Rhostyllen meeting I opted to go to the One Voice Wales meeting in Mold on the local government measure as I judged it would give a more balanced picture.
Reading Wrexham.com it would appear I was right.
It should be noted that the measure to merge community councils because of ” competency ” I.e. Having an annual budget of over £200,000 ,was dropped from the bill in June 2015. This was announced at a Welsh Local Government Association meeting I attended last June along with Co’s H Jones, I Roberts and M Pritchard so I am surprised , or am I , that they appear to be spreading confusion on this matter.This does not stop community councils looking at mergers ,if it suits them but yes I agree that has to be passed by a local plebiscite.
Lastly as Councillor Pritchard seems more au fait with the Labour Welsh Assembly manifesto than myself could someone please give me the chapter and verse reference to ” a single north wales authority?”
Well Cllr Pritchard has yet again made statements that are so far from the facts about the reorganisation of Local Authorities and Community Councils. He really does need to go for reading and listening lessons as what he reads and listens to seems to be so different to others even in the same room.
His statement about a North Wales Council has never featured in the Williams Commission or the subsequent Public Service Reform reports. Anyone in their right mind would not wish to replicate the massive disaster made with the creation of the Betsi Cadwalader Health Board. The only choices that have been put forward are either a two or three county model – Wrexham and Flintshire and a possibility of Denbighshire.
Cllr Bailey is perfectly correct that the £200k threshold was dropped by Leighton Andrews at the WLGA conference and is well documented. As Cllr Pritchard was their perhaps he should have paid more attention to his self-declared enemy Leighton Andrews!
The Community Council structure really needs to be changed – in the last election there were only 5 places across Wrexham as a whole that were contested and required an election. Many of these Community Councils have so little funding you really can’t see what they are achieving.
Cllr Pritchard and those supporting his views really need to start doing a reality check on what the facts are and stop trying to persuade people to follow their path to electoral oblivion…As a resident of Wrexham I have no desire to be part of Flintshire neither do I want to see reduced community councils, Councillor Pritchard is quite right to oppose this madness.
It’s the EU experiment on a small scale and for who’s benefit?
Higher profile, more power and renumeration for the usual suspects and the death of local accountable democracy.Perhaps they could shuffle between two Senedds, one in the North and one in the South and get paid handsomely for it.
All aboard the gravy train.
It seems to me to be rather telling, when Ian Lucas and Lesley Griffiths find it necessary to write to Mark Pritchard, Council Leader to call him to task over what are apparently misdirections or, as they state, lies, regarding reorganisation.
Are Cllr. Pritchard’s pigeons finally coming home to roost and if so, does that some small glimmer of hope for WCBC?
Whilst I acknowledge money must be saved, I personally don’t agree with one or two massive North Wales authorities as being a better way to operate local services, remember the Clwyd days! I would agree that community council wards should be cut/merged – some may serve some use and are proactive – but most are just a bunch of ‘old women who have nothing better to do, think money grows on trees, think they are real councillors and interfere in issues that they have no real knowledge of’. No offence!
I think the importance of this issue should not be underestimated. We have all our Political representative leadership in the area disagreeing about what is said in meetings. For Ian Lucas and Lesley Griffiths to raise their response so publicly and sending a copy to the Legal Officer in the Council is certainly serious. If Cllr Pritchard has yet again misrepresented a situation he should be reported to the Standards Committee for bringing a Public Office into disrepute.
In regard to the actual Community Council issue why did they not make submissions to the WG during the consultation period- very few were sent in by any Community Councils and why did Clr Pritchard hold a meeting the same night as One Wales which is the representative body for Community Councils.
This clearly is not straightforward-
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