Last week Citizen Cameron failed to reduce the number of MP’s from 650 to 600, with the proposed reform of the parliamentary boundaries Wales would have seen a reduction of 25% of its MP’s (10 out of 40). Incidentally the figure of 40 MP’s was merely historically plucked out of the air. A number of Labour’s in Wales’s elected representatives would have been culled, hence the loud and persistent bleating from some of those usual suspects. Aside from Citizen Cameron’s patience being tried what has been lost was a much needed opportunity to reform the way our National Assembly members are elected.
Lord Elis-Thomas, interviewed on BBC Wales' The Wales Report (last Sunday) advocated reducing the number of Wales' local authorities as part of a wider package of reform, which included reducing the number of Welsh MPs and increasing the number of assembly members. He was absolutely right to link reform of governance at all levels with the introduction of Single Transferable Vote system of voting. If we are going to reform governance (at all levels in Wales) then it must suit Welsh needs and aspirations rather than blindly following a British model which may not necessarily suit our needs.
If we approach the subject of Wales’s governance rationally then our country is at some levels actually somewhat overburdened with elected representatives. Wales with a population of 3.06 million has 60 AMs, 40 MP’s (at the moment), 4 MEPS; we have 1264 councilors (one for every 1830 electors). Wales also has around 8000 community councillors; out of some 875 'communities' in Wales, 735 of them have a council. Let’s not forget our unelected tier of government with its Assembly Government Sponsored Bodies, Assembly Sponsored Public Bodies (formerly known as quangos) and the seven Health Boards.
So how does Wales compare with other countries when it comes to governance? Scotland with a population of 5.2 million people has 59 MPs, 129 MSP’s and 6 MEP’s. Scotland has 1,222 councilors (one for every 3180 electors) and 32 unitary authorities. There are also 1,200 community council’s in Scotland, incidentally a country where the law states that candidates cannot stand on a party-political ticket. Scotland also has 14 Health Boards, 7 regional transport partnerships, while the Police and Emergency services are currently undergoing reorganisation.
Slovenia with a population of 2.05 million with 90 elected representatives in its Assembly (88 directly elected and 2 representatives for the Hungarian and Italian minorities) and 7 MEP’s. Slovenia has 211 municipalities (eleven are urban municipalities), all the municipalities have local autonomy. Each municipality has an elected Mayor (elected every 4 years), and a Municipal Council. In the most of the municipalities, the municipal council is elected via PR with some smaller municipalities using a plurality voting system. Slovenia’s urban municipalities have elected Town or City Councils. The country also has 62 administrative districts which are merely territorial sub-units of government administration, each of which has a Head of the Unit who is appointed by the Minister of Public Administration.
A strong case can and should be made for our 22 local authorities to be reorganised into between five and seven counties (with Cardiff as a municipal region in its own right). Such a reorganisation would match the already completed reorganisation of our local health boards which have been reduced in number to seven. The Conservatives ideologically driven reorganisation of local government in the 1990’s aside from being flawed, replaced several large authorities with 22 smaller authorities. This had more to do with breaking up perceived centres of monolithic Labour power and trying to create local authorities that he conservatives might win control of, than making local government more efficient.
Locally the former county of Gwent was abolished being replaced by five councils which covered; Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen, Newport and Monmouth. Almost overnight, one chief executive was replaced by five seperate chief executives, five heads of education, five heads of social services and deputies, etc, etc. Any relative economies of scale vanished being replaced by five seperate purchasing organisations, etc. Many of the local authorities, well before the age of austerity in which we no languish were struggling to make ends meet and most of them had to operate with poor financial settlements.
Our institutions at all levels need to be fully democratic being elected with Single Transferable Vote and multiple member constituencies so that they cease to dominated by single political parties and are fit for the twenty first century, rather than the nineteenth. Along the way we can cull the number of highly paid council cabinet members, reduce the number of councilors, and reintroduce some joined up thinking along with sensible economies of scale, and cut out that local government middle management tier without cutting front line services.
I would suggest that regional councils are a good idea, absorb into them the health board (social services are a natural match for health), add the fire service and the police and you start to democratise a whole layer of government. I would have 5 regional authorities. However I would both retain community councils and for those urban communities that lack them I'd introduce them there too. However I think we still need a tier of administration between the new regional authorities because people will feel that these regions are too remote. Dyfed was not much loved by the people of Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire and I think retaining the existing councils, with some modifications, but smaller councils and reduced functions would be better. It is about better government.
ReplyDeleteI recently read the report of the Local Government Commission for Wales from the early 1960s - they proposed initially 5 councils, North West (Gwynedd), North East, Clwyd + Montgomery, South West (Dyfed), Glamorgan, South East (Gwent plus Brecon and Radnor) and three county boroughs, Cardiff, Swansea and Newport.
Their final recommendation was for 7 Counties and three county boroughs, Slightly expanding the boundaries of Cardiff, Newport and Swansea. Ynys Mon was retained (they were impressed with the progressive council there.....) Caernarfon was expanded eastwards, taking the north Wales coast to Flintshire and took in Northern Meirionnydd . Flintshire and Denbighshire were to be combined. A new Mid Wales County was to be created from Southern Meirionnydd, Northern Ceredigion, Montgomery, Radnor and about 1/2 of Breconshire. The Southern Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire were to be a new South Western County. Monmouthshire was to be expanded to take in all of the Rhymney Valley and South Eastern Breconshire. Glamorganshire would take Merthyr and Southern Breconshire.
Their recommendations were rejected, however the report makes interesting reading. It looked at the capacity of the councils attract qualified staff to carry out their functions and found that most councils were too small to have a full establishment of specialist administrators.
I think we need to work from the bottom up, communities first and then work out what the structures should be from the functions we want them to carry out. I have suggested a blue print which returns to a two tier structure and democratises a layer of nominated bodies and joint boards.
I agree with the bottom up way of building local government, its the only way we can build a workable responsive (to local needs and national aspirations) local democracy. We have lived with constitutional hand-me-downs and the consequences of other peoples priorities being reflected in our local government structures for far too long - what we have at the moment is no longer fit for purpose.
ReplyDeleteThe last reorganisation was an imposition, with no inquiry and no real input from the people of Wales. I am concerned that what we are having now is reorganisation by stealth. We need some joined up thinking on this from the Welsh government and maybe - though it wastes time, we need a properly organised commission looking into the structure and function of sub national government in Wales, looking at the whole, form and functions of nominated and joint boards, the police and local government. I would very much like the police, fire and heath authorities to be be co-terminus and part of a democratic regional structure.
ReplyDeleteI would go back to the 8 counties we had before. These are more or less coterminous with the 7 health boards except that I would split north Wales back into Gwynedd and Clywd. I think it's more than just about creating new local councils - it's a chance for Wales to create a new sense of regional identity. The borders of the 7 health boards are OK but 8 is a much better number than 7 - ie it allows for inter-county competitions at sports, Eisteddfodau and so on. You could do that with 7 counties but with 8 it would be so much easier.
ReplyDeleteYou could possibly go further. Each county could be split 4 regions to give 32 Welsh "districts". I wouldn't have councils at this level but each district could have 1 MP and 2 AMs. That would give 32 MPs and 64 AMs. If there was a need to increase the number of AMs, you could have 16 regional AMs - 2 from each county - to give 80 in total.
I'm not sure how this would hold up in terms of the population of each county and district - ie would they be relatively similar, and would they need to be. But I often look enviously at the system all-Ireland has, and this would give us a similar setup.