Council Respond To ‘Scattergun’ Welsh Government Consultation

Wrexham Councillors will consider two reports in the coming days about various elements about the future of local government.

Two reports are due to go before the Executive Board on Tuesday afternoon, the first report is asking for the proverbial rubber stamping of the official response to a Welsh Government consultation on possible changes (Our report from February is here).

The second report looks to set up a working group to enable the Council to be ‘ in a position to respond in a more informed manner’ to future consultations. If created the working group would have a remit to ‘monitor developments in proposals or initiatives by Welsh Government for Local Government Reform’ along with examining what the implications would be, and drafting responses to any potential proposals.

The formal response to the Welsh Government consultation has been pulled together from discussions held at two All Member Workshops in March 2015 as well as the comments received at the March Town & Community Council Forum.

The White Paper sets out the Welsh Government’s proposals for reform in the areas of local democracy, the roles and remuneration of Elected members and senior officers, community governance and Community Councils, community rights, corporate improvement, service performance, scrutiny, audit, inspection and regulation, and finance.

Wrexham Council say: “The topic coverage within the White Paper is “scattergun”, covering a wide range of issues of varying complexity and varying significance. The paper makes proposals on matters large and small, simple and complex, making it difficult to assess the connecting rationale and preparing full responses to each is extremely time consuming.

“This also makes a summary of the response is difficult.”

The reply by Wrexham Council points out: “There are suggestions within the White Paper that we agree with such as community participation in service delivery, and this is an aim we are already pursuing via our Together in Wrexham work; there are also areas within the White Paper that we agree are laudable, such as encouraging the diversity of Elected Members and we would welcome more information on how Welsh Government could see this happening.

“There are some practical changes that we agree with such as changing the election term to five years to reflect UK changes, and if local Elected Members become AMs they should resign from their local role.

“However there are also a number of areas we fundamentally disagree with. The White Paper makes a basic assumption that all local authorities in Wales are failing. Whilst there have been specific instances of failure in some Councils across Wales and indeed England this should not presuppose that all local authorities are failing.

“In Wrexham we have a politically balanced Executive Board which is very inclusive and has served us well. The White Paper proposals appear to prevent this from continuing.

“The proposal for Leaders to have written manifestos prior to their election to the role by Member colleagues at Council displays a naivety of the political selection process.

“We are also concerned that the White Paper gives no indication of the costs of implementation or evidence that this will result in a more cost effective way of working. This is a major factor that must be considered before embarking on some of the large scale change that sits within the paper, particularly at a time when all budgets are under pressure.”

The Council’s full response can be found in this PDF document from Paragraphs 4.2 to 4.59.