German outlines plans for major Town Hall overhaul

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 23rd Oct 2006

Mike German today urged Welsh councils to consider setting up joint staffing structures as part of his party's proposals for a Town Hall overhaul in Wales.

Local Government spokesperson Mr German, Assembly leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, laid out his party's policies to transform local government after they were adopted by the party's policy committee on the weekend.

Mr German said: "The Beecham report posed us a question - how do you get councils to collaborate more in order to improve services? I want to challenge local government to find those ideas because one solution will not fit all.

"I would like to see shared budgets between councils - between councils and local health boards, with the police on crime reduction. These are ways to ensure joined up working.

"There is also a more radical idea which could offer exciting possibilities for small Welsh authorities like Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr and Ynys Mon.

"In Worthing and Adur they are experimenting with separate councils, but a single officer structure. We need to see how this works, but if successful, this idea has great potential to change the way we think about service delivery. Delivery enhanced, accountability preserved."

Mr German also set out a number of other key ideas to improve local government. These include:

Change to the voting system for local government

Teach political literacy in schools

Reduce the voting age to 16 for local elections in Wales.

Ensure that a proportion of members of National Park Authorities are directly elected.

Re-localise business rates.

Give local authorities a duty of scrutiny over the activities of LHBs, particularly the interface between social service departments and community health care.

"Local Government is the level of government closest to the people, with the most direct impact on all of our lives. People care about what happens in their area, but often feel powerless to do anything about it. Increasing political literacy among young people, making everyone's vote count and giving councils control of money they raise locally will help make that re-connection."

Notes:

Mike German is addressing the National Association of Councillors' Annual Conference at the Novotel in Cardiff at 3pm on Friday.