Report calls for fewer councils

20 January 2014 Last updated at 09:52 GMT

Williams Commission report calls for fewer councils

Refuse collection is an important council service

Councils in Wales should merge leaving 10, 11 or 12 local authorities rather than the current 22, a report has recommended.

The Williams Commission said the changes must be agreed by Easter this year at the latest.

The re-organisation suggests reducing council numbers by mergers using existing boundaries.

Opposition AMs say they are concerned about the potential costs and loss of local identity in some areas.

The report, by former NHS Wales chief executive Paul Williams, considers how many areas of public services can be improved and made more accountable.

Attention is focused on the recommendations for local authorities, last re-organised two decades ago.

The report recommends that the new councils should be within current health board and police force areas and also not cross the geographical areas governing eligibility for EU aid.

In an interview for the BBC's Sunday Politics Wales programme, First Minister Carwyn Jones said the existing number of 22 local authorities was "too many".

"We have, at the last count, six local authorities who are in special measures with regard to education out of 22," he said.

"Now that's not sustainable in the future so we need to have a very hard, long and honest look at the structure of not just local government but all public services in Wales to make sure that the structure is far more sustainable and stronger in the future."

Conservative AM for Monmouth Nick Ramsay told the programme Welsh ministers should not "rush headlong" into a reorganisation that may not bring the improvements people expected but would cost money.

"It could also wipe off the map some areas of Wales which people identify with - we've got to be careful, people have a sense of identity - don't mess with that," he said.

In a newsletter to constituents, Conservative Preseli Pembrokeshire MP Stephen Crabb expressed fears that Pembrokeshire County Council would disappear.

"Local people fought hard to get Pembrokeshire back from the old Dyfed authority, and the case for having our own local authority is as valid now as it was then," he said.

Professor Stephen Martin, the director of the Public Policy Institute for Wales at Cardiff University, carried out research for the Williams Commission.

He said he believed the idea of reducing the number of councils was now "unstoppable".

"(But) there isn't one right size - we have to work out what we want local councils to do," he told BBC Radio Wales.

"Looking at the evidence after the initial cost of redundancies etc you get two to three years where there is a dip in the performance of services - then from five years in, services improve.

'Objective evidence'

"The politics are quite tricky, but my own personal view is that the sooner the reorganisation happens the better because as soon as it's announced there is a hiatus in local council, people don't know what job they'll be doing, and major initiatives won't be developed."

In its submission to the commission, the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) - which represents local authorities in Wales - estimated the shake-up could cut 15,000 jobs, in addition to job losses that would result from budget cuts.

WLGA-commissioned research by accountants Deloitte indicated the cost of the changes was likely to be more than £200m.

Plaid Cymru local government spokesman Rhodri Glyn Thomas said the party would support re-organisation if there was a case made for it "based on independent, objective evidence".

"We have to look at what can be delivered nationally, what can be delivered regionally and what can be delivered locally, and then, when you look at the delivery of those services, the structures fall into place."

Liberal Democrats want the voting system for local elections changed as part of any shake-up, but they insist the cost of the changes must be kept "under control" and the quality of services not threatened.

The party's local government spokesman Peter Black said: "I'm prepared to support re-organisation if we get it right, and that means having councils which are representative, with a fair voting system, so that the outcome of elections are reflected in the way councils are elected."

Janet Finch-Saunders, the shadow minister for local government and Conservative assembly member for Aberconwy, told Radio Wales she did not think it was about council numbers.

"What we want to see are public services delivered well, with efficiency and transparency," she said.

"If you look at the predicted cost of full-scale reorganisation, anything between £200m and £500m, I think we'll wait and see what the report says and what the options are."