Agenda item
To submit
the report of the Leader (to follow).
Minutes:
Submitted - the Leader's report inviting a discussion on a series of principles the Council should adopt in terms
of any future discussion so that
a response to the consultation
paper could be formulated which was consistent with the Council's viewpoint.
During the discussion, it was noted that:-
·
It was not possible for community councils
to take on more responsibilities without increasing their precepts, and in
turn, this would place an additional
financial burden on families that
were already finding it difficult to cope.
·
Some community councils were likely to be more willing to help than others and how could
this be resolved?
·
It was a difficult time to realise these proposals as there were more cuts and challenges
on the horizon. Also, the process of merging councils was costly and it was unclear where money for
that would come from.
·
No evidence was seen that merging would
be better than the current
system.
·
It was a shame that the Williams Commission had
not examined the public
sector in its entirety.
·
There was an opinion that Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board was too large
and that this was why it faced so many
problems. If they had to merge, it should be done so in
a meaningful and relevant manner for our citizens.
·
Merging councils and centralising everything would deprive people
across Wales of the power
to make decisions locally and that
collaboration between authorities was the way forward.
·
The document was very vague. The contents could be interpreted in a number of different ways, more direction was needed and the aims should
be clearer.
·
The document focused on merging
instead of collaborating.
·
A radical change in how community
and town councils in Wales worked was needed, with consideration give to the type of powers they required
in order to act for their communities.
·
A concern regarding the impact of cuts on the third
sector and the need to drive a clear message
to the Boundary Commission and the Government stating that the time had come to end re-organisation and to collaborate and focus on
people within our communities.
·
Gwynedd Council was very willing to listen to the voice of young people.
·
The principle of a voluntary merger with Isle of Anglesey County Council instead of being forced to merge with more councils was supported. This would save
money and avoid the duplication of work and it must
also be borne in mind that
many existing councils had a larger population than Gwynedd and
Anglesey combined.
·
There were arguments in favour
of merging councils and savings could
possibly derive from it, but more evidence of this would initially need to be seen.
·
Too many orders came from the centre,
and councils themselves should be free to decide what the best arrangement
was, be it a merger or collaboration
with others, and also the level
of any collaboration.
·
If the government moved
further away from the people as a result of merging county councils, a more intimate layer of government must be ensured, namely the community councils, but it was believed that they would
not be able to cope with providing services as things stood at present. Therefore, the question of merging was also possible in
that regard.
RESOLVED to adopt the principles.
Supporting documents: