Warning North Wales CJC will ‘suck powers away from the six local authorities’

Wrexham Council’s Executive Board has given their formal backing to the activation of the North Wales Corporate Joint Committee (CJC) in bizarre scenes, as the proposer of the recommendation to do so stated “it is a nonsense”.

Last year saw four Corporate Joint Committees created in law in Wales, with the North Wales CJC formally established on 1 April 2021. Its formal work is set to begin work in June, with several weeks of start up activity ahead.

CJC’s were controversial when created by Welsh Government, described by some as ‘back door reorganisation‘ and are regional bodies with powers to decide on where to build new housing developments and invest in transport across the respective areas.

Locally the indirectly elected layer of government would sit above all six northern authorities as well as the Snowdonia National Park.

The report before the Executive Board yesterday contained an unusual amount of snark for such a document, with the misgivings over the concept of CJCs even chiselled into the formal recommendations.

The meeting itself saw councillors go a step further, and unusually for the Executive Board on matters that are deemed required legally to pass, there were two abstentions on the vote itself.

Council Leader Mark Pritchard did not miss the chance to use the meeting platform to hammer the principles of the CJCs, as well as detail his ‘awkward’ position, “I am going to sum up how we got to this point. CJCs were mandated by the Welsh Government, and they have the legislation to do that. It was discussed at the Welsh Local Government Association in a lengthy process, and it was supported by the WLGA and it was all supported when it went to the Senedd.

“At the WLGA the the Conservatives and the Independent group didn’t support it, and voted against it. The rest supported it. Same when it went to the Senedd, the Labour group and the Plaid Cymru group supported it and the rest voted against it.

“This is the legislation, we have to conform to it, we have to act within the law. We have to form the CJC across the region.”

“I will give you my personal view as a local elected member and also an executive board member. I don’t support them. I never have done, never will do. I don’t agree with them. I think it’s another form of bureaucracy, and that bureaucracy will come with the economy, wellbeing, planning, transport and improving education will cost us money – it will have to be funded and staffed.

“I think personally it’s a nonsense, but there’s one thing I do respect, it is the democratic process. As I said moments ago, it went through the WLGA and the Senedd.

“So we’re doing exactly the same thing this morning. We’re supporting it through the democratic process. I feel a little bit awkward this morning as chair of the executive board doing this because I fought for a long time against the CJCs and then this morning, I’m sitting here moving recommendations and the reason why I’m doing it because it’s required by legislation.”

Cllr Hugh Jones echoed not only the Council Leader but some of his Conservative colleagues elsewhere on the concept of CJCs, “I absolutely oppose this proposal. I will be abstaining because I recognise that we have a legal duty and legal responsibility, and as the leader has pointed out, democracy has taken its place and therefore we legally have no option.

“I think it’s wrong not to highlight the weaknesses of this proposal. It is going to impose another layer of bureaucracy on the people of North Wales and the people of Wales, and it will be an expensive bureaucracy.”

“For the life of this administration and this council we have all worked really hard, tirelessly, across the whole of North Wales to work in partnership on all the key matters and the key issues. The Welsh Government didn’t recognise the work that we’ve done, for instance, in criminal justice and welfare and a whole raft of areas that we work together in true partnership, democratically accountable to the executive boards and the cabinets of each each local authority. We’ve worked to streamline the number of boards and make them more effective, more accountable and put clarity to the work that they’re doing. All Welsh Government are going to do now is to impose another body, another bureaucratic undemocratic body onto the people of North Wales.

“I will be abstaining on this recommendation on the basis that it would be inappropriate to vote against it given that it is the law and we have to respect the law, I cannot and will not support it because it does not serve the people of the County Borough of Wrexham.”

Cllr Dana Davies who leads the local Welsh Labour group did offer agreement that ‘it is an added layer of bureaucracy’, but challenged the Executive members speaking of having “a lack of understanding” on what CJCs are and why they are ‘needed’.

Cllr Davies said, “We need to understand how we’ve got to this point and why this layer of bureaucracy is needed. The no choice that we have here from an all Wales point of view is the funding is coming through centrally now from UK Government on a regional basis. It’s bypassing the devolved nations. So for us in Wales to be able to access funding for strategic planning, strategic transport, economic development, we need to be in a position to be able to access and bid for that regional funding.

“Thats why they CJCs are having to be set up. That is why there’s no choice here, because it’s the only model that can be used as a delivery vehicle, to access transformational change monies.”

“The democratic element of this is going to be that the council leaders are going to be sitting on the CJCs, very similar to the model we’ve got for the economic ambition board now.”

“We need to be in a position in Wales where we can access that regional funding to deliver transformational change. If we look at things like the shared prosperity fund, that is coming through on a regional basis and it’s not coming through Welsh Government like previous EU monies were – and previous EU monies were being directed to Wrexham. We are going to be in a bidding process across six north Wales authorities.”

Cllr Alun Jenkins offered his view on CJCs calling them an “unnecessary step” and “the wrong model”, warning that the CJCs could “effectively now create a new, unelected upper tier of local government in Wales”

Cllr Jenkins added, “Once established, it’s there to grow, to fester and to grow. ‘Now we’re in existence, what else can we do?’ and they will suck powers away from the six local authorities and that is going to be to our detriment.

“We’re going to be returning, eventually, to no more than the second class district authorities that we were with limited resources and limited powers that we had before 1996. I really, really do regret that.

Cllr Jenkins also said he did not want CJCs to ‘own its own properties’, “Once it has its own property, has its own office with its own name above the door and so on then it becomes a separate entity, it becomes something which is opposed to us, not part of the of the co working that we’ve had so effectively over the last years.

“We’ve been masters in our own house, where we have control over everything ourselves. We’ve worked when necessary with other authorities, we can continue to work with other authorities and we have to work with other authorities on so many things. But, we need to we need to keep our own identity.”

Cllr Jenkins attempt to codify his views into a recommendation were thwarted legally, however Cllr Pritchard explained the CJC’s first meeting was next week and he would take “take that concern, raise it at the meeting and see if we can get some support from the other five authorities”.