In the previous piece, I looked at governance at the community level. Today, it goes up a level to counties and regions.
In practical terms, this could either retaining the current system of unitary authorities and just changing boundaries (if deemed practical):
It could also mean returning to a form of two-tier local government. Or, transforming the city regions and corporate joint committees into a more formalised tier of regional government and mixing and matching beneath it.
Once again, I’ll be looking at the financial issues, the reform process, and political/electoral implications in later parts:
As with the community level of local government, determining what services and powers would be best used by counties or regions is dependent on several factors:
- Capacity – The ability of the responsible body/organisation to make decisions effectively and objectively and also take responsibility for the delivery of particular services or the use of particular powers. In practical terms, this means having the right number of members, the right decision-making arrangements and suitably qualified support staff.
- Finances – How much money the body/organisation would have, the management of that money and the tools available to them to raise additional funds.
- Subsidiarity – What the Welsh Government deems to be suitable to be delivered at a county level that can’t be delivered at a lower tier of local government.
- Scale – The level of local influence the body/organisation has as a combination of all of the above factors.
Using the six options listed earlier, it can be summarised like this:
One thing you can say with certainty is that counties and regions ought to be responsible for what are described as “strategic people-based services”.
These are local government services that depend on a large skilled workforce, require clear multi-year strategies and policies, often require large sums of money to run each year and are also subject to strict legal frameworks, regulations and oversight.
In short, it includes all the stuff that you probably wouldn’t let a town or community council fund or run.
As for the specifics, it would depend on how many powers would be exercised at a community level.
Local Government V – The Community
An examination of the issues, lack of reform and international comparisons are out of the way. So it's time to...
Read moreDetailsStronger town & community councils – or new forms of community governance like municipal councils – would mean power could be shared between the community tier and the county tier. This would effectively return to two-tier local government like the old county and district councils.
If community-level local government was weaker – using community meetings or carrying on with existing town & community councils – then counties and regions would justify being responsible for far more.
As for what it could look like (I’d recommend opening it in a new browser window):
When I was looking at the community level in Part V, the functions were tied to how much capacity and resources each form of community governance has. For example, a municipal council with part-time councillors (assisted by full-time officers) and able to use more financial powers would have the capacity to take on more responsibilities.
In the case of counties and regions, it would be down to how many responsibilities would be passed down to the community level.
In cases where responsibilities are evenly split, it favours strong municipal councils and a return to two-tier government (which is what we had between 1974-1996).
If we want a continue with a single tier of local government – alongside existing town & community councils, for example – then it favours the counties retaining as many powers as we do now.
If we want to promote regional working and collaboration, then it favours creating a strong regional tier and devolving responsibilities down from the Senedd.
