Welsh Labour plans to force councils to merge may be delayed by up to ten years according to Carmarthenshire council leader, Emlyn Doyle.

He claims to have been offered reassurances by new Local Government Secretary, Mark Drakeford, which would equate to a shelving of Labour’s local government reforms for a decade.

Shadow Secretary for Local Government, Janet Finch-Saunders, is this morning calling for “certainty and continuity”.

She said:

“If Labour’s planned council mergers have been shelved for up to a decade then it will be very humbling indeed for the First Minister, whose government used up a lot of capital trying to force them through.

“Instead of starting the process with a radical review of the services provided by local authorities, Labour ministers became pre-occupied with the geography of the new council map – which was completely the wrong way around.

“The Welsh Government need to bring forward a statement at the earliest opportunity outlining their plans for local government reform.

“In the short term, Welsh councils need certainty and continuity, and it’s just not good enough to leave these doubts hanging in the ether.”

Notes to Editors:

Originally reported on BBC Wales HERE.