I think we shall park all our particular political affiliations and actually compare the quality of services provided by each Council — such as Education, Social Care, Housing, Roads etc
If one county is better performing than another wouldn’t it be best that the one delivering the highest quality takes over the other. Looking at the issue of mergers based on the quality of services means there could be a win-win in both counties as there could better quality in either / both counties.
If we keep looking at Political footprints then we will never progress and where there are poor services they will remain poor as it shows there are either poor management areas or lack of investment. Vote for better services rather a particular Political Party proposal.