New law to shake up local government in Wales? – have your say

16 July 2010

A new law to shake up the way local councils across Wales are run is being proposed by the Welsh Government.

The Local Government (Wales) Measure proposes the setting up of an independent body to set allowances for councillors and extend Welsh Ministers’ powers to encourage more collaboration between councils.

Now the National Assembly for Wales’ Legislation Committee No.3 has begun the process of scrutinising the proposed new law.

And as part of that process they want to hear the views of as many individuals and interested groups as possible.

“Local councils are something all of us come into contact with on a weekly basis if not a daily basis,” said Committee Chair, Dai Lloyd AM.

“Local councils run our schools, collect our litter and run our leisure centres so we all have a stake in how they’re run.

“This Measure proposes significant changes to the way councillors are paid and how councils operate and collaborate with each other.

“That’s why we want as many people as possible to feed their views into the scrutiny process.”

Among the proposals in this proposed Measure are:

- introducing a duty on principal councils to monitor the equality and diversity of candidates in elections to principal councils, and to town and community councils;

- introduce a duty on principal councils to provide adequate training for elected members;

- simplify the procedures by which a local authority is able to change its executive model of government;

- abolish the elected mayor and council manager options;

- enable two or more local councils to form joint overview and scrutiny committees;

- enable local councils to have powers to co-opt persons who are non councillors to their scrutiny committees and allow them voting rights;

- to enable an Independent Remuneration Panel to alter the types of allowances and define the duties and responsibilities which qualify members to receive a certain allowance.

- Extend Welsh Minsters’ powers to issue guidance regarding collaboration between councils.

To take part in the consultation process, send your views to:

legislationoffice@wales.gov.uk

Or write to Carys Jones, Legislation Office, National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff Bay, CF99 1NA.