Gibbons’ threat to cut number of councils

Apr 14 2008 by David James, Western Mail

LOCAL Government Minister Brian Gibbons has provoked a debate on the future of Wales’ 22 unitary authorities by threatening to cut their number if they don’t perform.

Council leaders and political commentators last night found themselves on opposite sides of an argument about whether 22 local authorities are too many for a nation of three million people.

Dr Gibbons has called on councils to work more closely together to improve services over the next four years. But he raised the prospect of reducing the number of local authorities if targets are not met.

He said: “It could mean restructuring but I don’t think that we would say that is automatically the end point.

“The big challenge for local government is with the existing structures, working jointly with health, with other external organisations, working jointly across organisational boundaries.

“Can they deliver improved services for their citizens and service users?”

His comments on the BBC’s Politics Show were immediately criticised by Liberal Democrat council leaders.

Cardiff Council leader, Lib-Dem Rodney Berman accused Labour of trying to manipulate the electoral system as the party was worried about doing badly in the council elections on May 1.

He said: “What you have to remember is that local authorities have been starved of cash by the Assembly Government. It is a little bit rich for them to turn around and say if you don’t perform you will be merged when they don’t give local authorities enough money in the first place.”

Bridgend Council leader Cheryl Green said she had not seen any evidence that fewer councils would mean better services and argued that reorganisation could mean less local accountability.

The system of 22 local authorities was created by the Conservative government in 1996 from the ashes of the larger county council system that dated back to 1974.

Political expert Dr Denis Balsom said there had been a choice between a structure of eight or 12 larger councils or 22 smaller ones, and that there was an argument for reducing that number simply to improve management.

He said: “It seems to me one can make a case for fewer authorities just on the basis of management. In education and social services there is an element of scale.

“People will say that there is an element of local responsibility that you will lose but Wales is a small place. Are the differences between Ceredigion and Powys or Merthyr Tydfil and Caerphilly that great?”

He said that the current structure had been drawn up in 1996 before the Assembly had been set up and that councils were now working within the framework set in Cardiff Bay.

Former leader of Bridgend Council Jeff Jones said the present system left smaller authorities struggling to deliver the same quality of services as in larger areas.

He said: “The way the present system is set up is not working. It is very difficult for a smaller authority to deliver the same services as a larger authority. Collaboration is working in some areas and in other areas it is not.”

He said that larger areas, like a greater Cardiff Council that included part of the Vale of Glamorgan and Rhondda Cynon Taf and had an elected mayor, could deliver better services and a more interesting democratic process.

Mr Jones added that although there would be a cost from reorganisation, there would also be savings from employing individual management teams in each local authority area.

Professor Steve Martin from Cardiff Business School said that reducing the number of councils might not solve any problems.

He said: “Simply to reorganise and have a number of larger councils is to miss the problems that we need to address in local councils.”

The Welsh Assembly Government has already outlined plans to reduce local health boards from 22 to eight. The plans, under consultation, would also spell the end for the internal market in the NHS with direct funding from Cardiff Bay.