{"id":28305,"date":"2018-03-23T14:57:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T14:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=28305"},"modified":"2018-03-23T14:57:53","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T14:57:53","slug":"minister-unveils-plan-merge-cardiff-vale-councils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/03\/23\/minister-unveils-plan-merge-cardiff-vale-councils\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister unveils plan to merge Cardiff and Vale councils"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CARDIFF and Vale of Glamorgan councils could merge together in Welsh Government plans to reduce the number of councils from 22 to just 10. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The proposal is contained in a Green Paper consultation which has been launched by Local Government Secretary, Alun Davies.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">He said: \u201cOur local authorities need to be large enough to have the capacity and capability to develop and implement the bold new solutions demanded by the increasing challenges they face. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cContinuing as we are will simply see more missed opportunities to modernise, integrate and transform the way things are done.\u201d <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Previous plans to merge the councils were scrapped after the Welsh Assembly election in 2016. <\/span><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Councillor Russell Goodway, Cabinet Member for Investment and Development on Cardiff Council said services will be better by having larger and democratically accountable authorities. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cardiff Council Leader, Huw Thomas also said he welcomes this \u201cconstructive approach\u201d and has previously made a case for stronger local authorities. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coun Thomas said: <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWhat is clear is that Cardiff is already by far the largest authority in Wales and is growing faster than the rest of Wales put together. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe would have concerns about any process of reorganisation, or of regionalisation which distracted us from our delivery agenda, or which weakens the accountability of decision-makers to the citizens of Cardiff.\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) raised concerns about the proposed changes. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a statement on Tuesday, it said: \u201cConsequently, this announcement has caused disquiet and confusion. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt has arrived midway through the Assembly term and following the recent Welsh Government assurance that no reorganisation would occur for 10 years.\u201d <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Welsh Government have proposed three options on how the merger plans could happen: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Option 1- Voluntary mergers. Local authorities can come forward with merger proposals. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Option 2- A phased approach with early adopters merging first followed by other authorities. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Option 3- A single comprehensive merger programme. The Welsh Government make for provisions for local authority mergers in 2022.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Austin Walters, 40, a business investor from Llantwit Major said: \u201cIn general I think the mergers are a good idea when implemented correctly.<br \/>\n\u201cIt seems the Vale and Bridgend are struggling &#8211; I hear of staff cuts and staff shortages in those councils causing multiple issues, but certain other authorities like Caerphilly and Cardiff appear to be in much better shape.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CARDIFF and Vale of Glamorgan councils could merge together in Welsh Government plans to reduce the number of councils from 22 to just 10. The proposal is contained in a Green Paper consultation which has been launched by Local Government Secretary, Alun Davies. He said: \u201cOur local authorities need to be large enough to have the capacity and capability to develop and implement the bold new solutions demanded by the increasing challenges they face. \u201cContinuing as we are will simply [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":24419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,3],"tags":[1291,132,5499,6052,6053,126],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-28305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city","category-news","tag-cardiff-2","tag-council","tag-green-paper","tag-local-authority","tag-merger-plans","tag-welsh-government"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Minister unveils plan to merge Cardiff and Vale councils - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/03\/23\/minister-unveils-plan-merge-cardiff-vale-councils\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minister unveils plan to merge Cardiff and Vale councils - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CARDIFF and Vale of Glamorgan councils could merge together in Welsh Government plans to reduce the number of councils from 22 to just 10. The proposal is contained in a Green Paper consultation which has been launched by Local Government Secretary, Alun Davies. 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