A choice between frying pan and fire

Some cynics might suggest that in breaking its habit of ignoring local democracy matters unless some scandal is attached, there is quite possibly an agenda behind the Beeb’s recent coverage. Maybe so, but its portrayal of a Labour-run Assembly barely able to conceal its contempt towards Welsh county councils does not require a huge amount of creative license.

There are some sizeable gaps in their background research however – as evidenced by the clumsy seconding of Tony Travers to make his extraneous observations about Doncaster. The good professor would know that English local authorities have long endured the rigours of the Whitehall-driven comprehensive performance assessment; described by one council leader as “legitimised burglary”. There have been regularly expressed comments at Local Government Association workshops about the comparatively light touch exercised by auditors in Wales. Indeed, Prof Travers was reportedly one of the participants who made them.  Ah well.

As for the reorganisation announced in timely response to a performance 'crisis' in county halls, better formed insights would confirm that it is the upper strata of civil servants who pursue the nirvana of coterminous organisational boundaries – both as a means of “simplifying” public sector provision and achieving those elusive economies of scale. Their political masters need do no more than read from their prepared scripts and avoid any suggestion that they have not thought out the implications of another round of centralism.

There are clearly grounds for dissenters to flag up a looming democratic deficit inasmuch as the proposed Regional Boards are far more likely to be directly accountable to ministers than the local community (Oh yes there are). But it is the lure of “savings” that prevails in times of austerity and how many local council cabinets in Wales can claim to have a direct popular mandate anyway?

No-one really believes that Wales will continue to support 22 councils and 1264 councillors in the medium term. The quietly confident view in Cathays Park is that things will change after the inevitable parliamentary cull and associated messy boundary amendments. The only meaningful priority is that sixty seats are retained for the Senedd come the ensuing process of attrition – and there will still be plenty of quangos in which to bury the higher profile casualties.

Local government and local democracy have always been uncomfortable bedfellows and few modern day chief executives would mourn the loss of a political tier when grappling with the major strategic issues of team-based inclusiveness training or how to boost the senior officers' pension scheme. 

What strikes us as odd however – and as the great grand scheme of public service reorganisation unfolds - is that no-one (especially RT Davies) has queried if it is actually a wise move to graft responsibilities for education and social services delivery onto the lumbering inefficient monoliths that presently run health in Wales.

Discuss.