Council mergers: Solid evidence must be supported
Commenting on the Labour government’s confirmation of voluntary merger applications – submitted ahead of last week’s deadline and including six councils, along with the potential for Swansea and Neath as well – Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Local Government, Janet Finch-Saunders AM, said:
“On voluntary mergers, those councils that can provide clear and strong evidence of the benefits to communities and frontline services should be properly supported.
“This should be about councils looking carefully at the potential for mergers, assessing whether communities can be better served by change, and providing evidence to corroborate that.
“Serious questions remain over the next stages in this process and I hope the evidence provided to the Labour government will be published in due course.”