Issue - meetings

(a)       That the Council shares a draft response to the White Paper with Group Leaders before making a formal response; and

(b)       That the Council notes the current arrangements for regional working in North Wales.

The Chief Executive introduced a report on the White Paper published by Welsh Government (WG) which was a statement of intent for the future of local government in Wales to replace the earlier Local Government (Wales) Bill of the previous WG.  He gave a presentation covering the following areas:

·         background

·         over-riding points

·         White Paper contents

·         critique of the White Paper

·         reminder of what we said in response to the last Bill

·         Part 2: Regional Working

·         Part 3: Voluntary Mergers

·         Part 4: Local Leadership

·         Part 5: Leading Localities

·         Part 6: Community Councils

·         Part 7: Elections and Voting

·         other proposals

The Chief Executive commended the positive working relationship with the current Cabinet Secretary for Finance & Local Government.  On the White Paper, he shared concerns on the questionable mix of issues, the lack of detail and absence of funding necessary to support resilience and sustainability in local government.  Members’ views would be collated within the draft response and shared prior to submission by the deadline of 11 April 2017.

Councillor Aaron Shotton described the provisions within the White Paper as far-reaching.  In acknowledging the need for different ways of working and appropriate regional collaboration, he gave a reminder of the Council’s significant progress and stated the importance of achieving the right balance between regional working and localism.  Whilst he supported a uniform approach to election voting systems, he spoke against the idea of future regionalisation of housing.  To enable an informed debate including newly elected Members, he felt that the Council should seek an extension to the consultation deadline.

Councillor Owen Thomas commented on the importance of progress on the Northern Powerhouse and BT broadband programme to strengthen the local economy.  The Chief Executive gave a brief update on the positive development of the regional growth strategy for North Wales and the proposed North East Wales metro system.

Councillor Mike Peers supported the suggested extension to the consultation deadline.  On the provisions of the White Paper, he called for more details behind the Joint Planning Boards and referred to the environmental impact from the movement of vehicles between counties to deliver joint working on waste.  He pointed out that additional resources were necessary to address Consultation Question 6 and sought rationale behind the aim to seek ‘a more diverse range’ of councillors, also commenting that surgeries should be replaced by more modern means of communication.  He added that more funding from WG would help to reduce ‘unnecessary burdens’ and that the lack of focus on cross-border collaborative working did not recognise Flintshire’s position.  In response to comments, the Chief Executive gave clarification on the four terms used for the current economic partnerships shown on the map which showed areas under WG control.  He also pointed out that funding for the North Wales growth strategy was reliant on cross-border working.

Councillor Arnold Woolley spoke in support of the critique of the White Paper and the proposed deadline extension.  He felt that WG had not given any indication of the best method of governance locally,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 96