Montgomeryshire Assembly Member, Russell George, has said that many the recommendations made by a Welsh Government backed Commission on local government and public service reform, may not go ahead.
Mr George made the comments following a lively debate in the National Assembly on the findings of the Williams Commission, which was tasked by the First Minister, Carwyn Jones AM, to examine how Welsh public services can be improved and made more accountable to the people who use them. One of the key areas examined was how local government should be delivered in the future. The report recommended that the number of local authorities in Wales should be halved as part of “urgent and radical action” needed to protect public services.
The report’s impact for Mid Wales was a recommendation that the local authority and the local health board should engage in a coterminous merger. However since the report’s publication, a bid for a cross-party consensus to take the recommendations forward has stalled and local government leaders have called for an urgent meeting with the Carwyn Jones to examine alternative proposals for reorganisation.
Commenting during the debate, Mr George said:
“I am not against the proposal to merge Powys County Council with Powys Teaching Health Board, however I do think there are a number of significant barriers which will make this proposal difficult to achieve and the Government needs to provide viable solutions to overcome those barriers.
“There is a different model for delivering services in the county – we rely not just on the local health board but also Hywel Dda and Betsi Cadwaldr in Wales, as well as the two NHS Trusts in England.
“There are a number of concerns in my opinion that need to be addressed before the Government goes ahead with any merger plans, they including organisation capacity, democratic accountability and financial viability; how do you reconcile the financial position of these two organisations?
“Since this merger idea was last examined in 2010, the financial deficit of the local health board has worsened because the Welsh Government has reduced funding, so what happens to that historic debt? Is the Welsh Government going to write it off?
“I also want to know what will happen to the wider funding formula for local government. Is the Welsh Government going to recognise and address the current underfunding problem of Powys before any such merger goes ahead?
“Williams’ states in his report that he feels all these challenges can now be overcome but I’m not so sure.
“The ball is very much in the court of the First Minister and he needs to provide the people of Powys with answers sooner rather than later.”
