Councillor Mike Richards (Labour) and I attended the consultation workshop organised on behalf of the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales held in Carmarthen yesterday.

This sort of outreach exercise is a departure for the Commission. It is very much a brain-child of the outgoing chair, Susan Smith. She had felt that the AGM of the Commission had become too stuffy and unproductive, so organised a less formal discussion in conjunction with this year’s. This had been successful, but was necessarily limited to those who were motivated enough to journey to Llandudno. Therefore, two further consultations for South & East Wales, and for Mid & West Wales, had been arranged. The Carmarthen event represented the latter.

It was gratifying that the “top table” seemed to take on board the general feeling of those present: that, in terms of boundaries and ratio of representation, one size did not fit all. There seemed to be general agreement that the Welsh ratio of councillors to electors, of 1:1750, was about right. Hovever, such factors as geography (affecting communications), the nature of population (rural, urban or mixed) and local economics affected decisions about communtiy council representation.

The outgoing chair and her successor were also quick to defend their independence against the suspicion voiced by a number of councillors that the drawing of boundaries favoured the ruling party. The new man, Paul Woods, declared that if he felt that pressure was put on him by government to come to a particular decision then he would resign.

The sessions were so arranged that people from different disciplines met in groups. I was with representatives from small community councils, one large one with the biggest private housing estate in Wales, a full-time officer (NPT’s own Rhys George) and a town clerk. The interchange of experiences and views – not restricted to boundary concerns – was as valuable as being able to put forward ones views about the Commission.

There may be more after we have a chance to compare notes at the next Blaenhonddan meeting.

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