Wrexham To Merge With Flintshire And Denbighshire In 4 Years Is “Lunacy”
Today the Welsh Government has unveiled proposals to merge councils across Wales in a move that it claims will save £650 million over ten years.
As many as 2000 council jobs could go in a shake-up which would see the current six north Wales councils merge into two or three. Two options are included for Wrexham, one merging with Denbighshire and Flintshire and the second being a straight Wrexham and Flintshire merger.
The firm costs to merge have not been nailed down, nor has the source of the funding to pay for it, however there are some suggestions it could cost as much as £100m to £250m.
Cllr Mark Pritchard, Leader of Wrexham Council, said in response to the draft bill: “I do not support what is being proposed.”
“It is sheer madness and lunacy and only fools rush in with their heads in the clouds. I have said before that bigger is not always better, as has been proved with the health authority.
“There is a need for more detail on the financial implications in the proposals and I again ask the Minister to look at a Boundary Review so we can move forward together for the benefit of the people of Wales.”
The Welsh Government says the Draft Local Government (Wales) Bill, published today, sets out how ‘significant savings can be made in order to protect frontline services at a time of unprecedented demand’. Under the Bill, the current 22 councils will be merged into 8 or 9, ‘cutting overheads’, and ‘acting as a catalyst for reforming the way services are delivered to citizens’.
The Welsh Government say: “It’s anticipated that the mergers would pay for themselves within two to three years, and the £650m savings figure takes into account all these initial costs. Additional savings could also be achieved by the sale of surplus assets.”
The proposals also include extra detail on the previously mentioned local democracy ‘improvements’. One of which was the idea of ‘term limits’ for Councillors, a proposal that appeared quite positively received by Wrexham.com readers to ensure fresh blood and ideas, however today’s document says these will ‘not proceed’. The plans to allow a ‘recall’ of a Councillor via a 20% of the electorate poll have made it through to this final draft.
The possible mergers are displayed on the map below:
Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews said: “There is a real opportunity here for local government to make significant savings for taxpayers and if councils work together, plan well and involve their staff there is the opportunity for savings even greater than the £650m we have identified.”
“This means more money for front line public services, more money to invest in communities and more money to support local economic prosperity.”
Conservative Shadow Local Government Minister Janet Finch-Saunders said: “We heard similar rhetoric ahead of Labour’s last NHS reorganisation, which led to huge deficits and unprecedented pressure on frontline staff.
“Communities will rightly question whether these figures can be trusted and it’s local people who continue to be ignored by Labour.”
The most recent update was the news half of the local councillors could be abolished, which was preceded by Wrexham Council voted against participating in a voluntary merger with Flintshire Council with councillors voting in favour to ‘stand alone’. The vote was slammed by the local MP Ian Lucas who thinks Wrexham should merge and take the lead in any partnership.
Previously we first reported the leaked map, and documented the ‘brutal’ debate over the proposed mergers.
Today’s Draft Bill is the start of a formal consultation process on the proposals for local authority mergers announced in June. Views are sought on the proposed structure, including whether there should be two or three councils serving North Wales.
Consultation on the mergers is open until 15 February, with a bill due to be presented next autumn.
The full consultation documents can be found below, which are quite long and dull, but are likely quite important to the future of how Wales is run:
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