Welsh councils will be asked to work together to improve public services under plans to be set out by Local Government Secretary, Mark Drakeford.

Responding for the Welsh Conservatives, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Local Government, Janet Finch-Saunders, said:

“We were pleased to see the Welsh Government abandoning plans to force councils to merge, but the next steps must be properly thought through – not rushed out without due consideration.

We certainly don’t want to see the unnecessary duplication of services, and without clear guidance over the scope and shape of partnership agreements there is a real danger we could be left with 22 shell local authorities.

We need to be having a serious conversation about what services local authorities will be asked to provide in future and then develop a system to fit. Once again they’re doing things the wrong way around.”

ENDS