Agenda item

A verbal update will be provided by the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive.

That the Council writes to the Welsh Government Minister before 28 November 2014, to restate the Council’s position of being open to discussions with Wrexham County Borough Council for a voluntary merger,  and request that if discussion takes place during the consultation concerning reviews of existing Council boundaries that the Council be involved in those discussions with the North Wales authorities.

The Chief Executive provided an update on the Welsh Government consultation on the reform of local government and the public services.  Referring to the Williams Commission he advised that the deadline for local authorities to  express an interest to the Minister in a voluntary merger was 28 November 2014. 

The Chief Executive referred to the WG ‘prospectus’ for ‘early adopters’ which detailed the process and incentives for councils who wished to submit a business case in favour of a voluntary merger.  He reminded members that at the meeting of the Council on 22 October 2014, it had been agreed to explore an early adoption merger of Flintshire County Council and Wrexham County Borough Council, however, Wrexham Council had subsequently declined to pursue a voluntary merger with Flintshire, a decision Flintshire had to respect and accept at this stage.  He referred to the local authorities who were thought likely to express an interest and advised that 7 local authorities had indicated that they had no interest in pursuing a voluntary merger at this moment in time, whereas six appeared to have an interest.. 

Councillor Aaron Shotton reported that the Council had written to seek an urgent meeting with the Welsh Government Minister for Local Government and the Minister for Finance to discuss the availability of transitional finance, support, and the long term funding strategy to assist the Council in protecting local government services in return for an early merger with Wrexham County Borough Council.  Whilst the Authority was still willing to discuss and explore the opportunity  of a voluntary merger with Wrexham Council, Councillor Shotton said there was a strong debate to be had around the costs of re-organisation and where the funding would come from to meet those costs.  He cited as an example the contributory costs of redundancies, pay and grading, system changes, property, assets, accommodation, taxation,   He commented that the costs for local government reorganisation across Wales had been estimated at between £160m - £268m which were higher than the figures indicated in the Williams Commission.  Councillor Shotton referred to the indicative cost of £10m for a merger between Flintshire County Council and Wrexham County Borough Council which had a WG timeline of 2020.  He said that until the Authority had a clear understanding of the real costs associated with a merger with Wrexham Council it could not see sufficiently the specific benefits.  Whilst acknowledging that there were possible benefits to a merger there were also risks. 

Councillor Shotton referred to discussions which were beginning to take place with some authorities in Wales around changes to existing council boundaries.   Councillor Shotton commented on information that the Minister was possibly proposing to reduce the number of local authorities in Wales to 6, which was a change from the 12 authorities recommended in the Williams Commission.  He stressed the need for the Authority to be involved in discussions concerning reviews of existing Council boundaries. 

Councillor Shotton proposed that the Council writes to the Welsh Government Minister before 28 November 2014, to restate the Council’s position concerning the opening of discussions with Wrexham County Borough Council for a voluntary merger,   and request that if discussion takes place during the consultation concerning reviews of existing Council boundaries, that the Council be involved in those discussions with the North Wales local authorities. The proposal was seconded and agreed by Members.

RESOLVED:

That the Council writes to the Welsh Government Minister before 28 November 2014, to restate the Council’s position of being open to discussions with Wrexham County Borough Council for a voluntary merger,  and request that if discussion takes place during the consultation concerning reviews of existing Council boundaries that the Council be involved in those discussions with the North Wales authorities.