‘Arrogant bullying’ Law forcing council mergers slammed
FORCING councils to merge by law when two have already volunteered to do so shows an arrogant attitude that deserves to be voted down by the Assembly, a Plaid Cymru AM has claimed.
Simon Thomas is furious that the Welsh Government is bringing forward a Bill to cut the number of local authorities when Conwy and Denbighshire’s bid to join forces was rejected by Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews.
Mr Thomas and opposition AMs from the Welsh Tories and the Liberal Democrats accused Mr Andrews his team of “arrogance” and “bullying” over the Local Government (Wales) Bill shortly before a debate in the Senedd.
Mr Thomas said: “All this Bill does is deliver things that could be done now, things that could have been done 18 months ago by the three voluntary mergers that were proposed.
Welsh Liberal Demo- crat AM Peter Black accused the Welsh Labour Government of “arrogance” saying the Bill as it stood was “an exercise in futility” and it would serve them right if it was voted down in the Assembly.
The Lib Dems also claimed that Labour ministers had wasted £130,000 on a commission on local government reorganisation whose findings it had then ignored.
Conservative Aberconwy AM Janet Finch Saunders accused Mr Andrews of “drawing lines randomly on a map” to create proposals for a new look council structure, and said the people of Conwy and Denbighshire had “no idea” why their plans had been rejected.
“I think a good case was put forward by Conwy and Denbighshire.
“I
was
absolutely appalled that the Minister just rejected it out of hand,” she said.
But First Minister Carwyn Jones hit back at the Tories for proposing a referendum on council mergers.
During First Minister’s questions, he said: “As far as local government reorganisation is concerned, what kind of a policy is that?
“We have no idea so we will have referendums on possible reforms across Wales: it’s about time you had ideas.”
Earlier this year Mr Andrews revealed plans to radically shake-up local government, reducing the number of councils in North Wales from six to two or three.
The first option would see Anglesey, Gwynedd and Conwy merge, as would Denbighshire, Wrexham and Flintshire. The alternative sees Conwy and Denbighshire merging.