Residents want fair council tax, not votes at 16 – warns Janet Finch-Saunders AM, the Welsh Conservative spokesperson for Local Government.

It comes as the Welsh Labour Government publishes a White Paper on local government reform today.

The paper includes a ‘fop’ to buy off Plaid Cymru support, with suggestions that future local government elections could extend the franchise to votes at 16, under Single Transferable Vote.

Shadow Local Government Secretary, Janet Finch-Saunders, said:

“I’m pleased that the Cabinet Secretary has approached this process in a more conciliatory way than predecessors, but I do have concerns that the decision to graft electoral reform in to these proposals is just a fop to buy off the support of Plaid Cymru.

“Carwyn Jones invested significant sums of taxpayers’ cash and personal political capital on the Williams’ Commission – and here we are again some years later.

“The Welsh Government’s top priority should be the delivery of efficient, well-run services, and fair levels of council tax. That’s what ratepayers want, not electoral reform.

“There’s a real danger that sub-dividing local government into different regional layers will muddy the waters, taking decision-making further away from residents and doing little to reduce the complexity of the public sector in Wales.”

ENDS