Welsh Government Consultation Launches On Council Reform

A consultation has been launched about possible changes to how Councils are run across Wales.

Last week saw some Council merger proposals thrown out, with more detail promised over merger proposals. In a ‘white paper’ details have been given, with a selection below, with the public now invited to have their say.

Proposed changes include:

• If any Councils merge the ability to ‘extend the terms of office of existing members’.
• Elections to come in line with General Elections moving to a 5 yearly model.
• The Bill makes provision for the establishment of a ‘Shadow Authority’ in respect of voluntarily merging Authorities.
• Council Leaders to have ‘written statement of goals’ and present it to the Council before their election.
• To encourage young people to get involved in politics it will be a requirement each area must have a Youth Council.
• Changes to Councillor pay, with the concern listed that taking a retired person into a higher tax bracket could dissuade them from standing.
• With some Councillors standing for over 50 years (on the council, not just loitering) there is a suggested limit of five terms for Councillors, and two terms for Leaders, Elected Mayors and Cabinet Members. This equates to 25 years for Councillors and 10 years for Council Leaders and Cabinet Members.
• Ability to recall Councillors if they break codes of conduct.
• Possible time limits for Chief Executives.

You can read the full bill here, with the slightly more digestable explanatory notes in this 188 page PDF, or the dead easy to read PDF here (we suggest this one!).

The Welsh Government have an online consultation survey – Complete the consultation survey here (external link).

The previous consultation by the Welsh Government on this major topic had 170 responses with just 25 replies from members of the public. For scale, a recent Wrexham Council consultation on public toilets in the town had 94.

(Amusingly we have heard of ‘Hyperlocal Day’ later in the year emanating from South Wales this morning, and the consultation page for the local government change proposal states “A public awareness campaign will also be running alongside the consultation to ensure that as many people as possible are aware of the Consultation and Welsh Government’s intentions around Local Government Reform.” As always, we have not received payment for this promotion , nor even told about it until we looked ourselves. )