Alun Davies: I am particularly pleased to be setting out these electoral reforms today because we will very shortly be celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the first women being allowed to vote in elections in the United Kingdom and the introduction of universal male suffrage. It is therefore fitting that I am able to state my intention, making use of the powers due to be transferred to this...
Alun Davies: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I wish to take this opportunity this afternoon to inform Members of my proposals for taking forward reforms to the arrangements for local government elections, including who can vote, how they are registered, how people vote and who can stand for election. My statement today focuses on arrangements for local elections, but I'm aware, Presiding Officer,...
Alun Davies: I'm absolutely delighted to be in complete agreement with the Member for Swansea East. I once disagreed with him on local government matters, I'll never do so again, and I'm delighted that I don't have to do so this afternoon.
Alun Davies: I'm not sure that it helps the local democratic debate that Siân Gwenllian was championing earlier in this session for Ministers to be passing observations and comments on the decisions of local authorities. I believe in local government. I believe in local decision making. I believe in local democracy. And that means that local democratically accountable political leaders should have the...
Alun Davies: I hope that we will see real and meaningful collaboration amongst authorities in the future. We need to be able to deliver services at a scale that is both robust and delivers excellence in terms of delivery of the services and for the people delivering those services. How we deliver services will be different in a rural part of west Wales, which the Member represents, in north...
Alun Davies: Public services deliver vital services to people in Pembrokeshire and across Wales. Their ability and resilience to deliver positive outcomes in challenging times is a priority for me and this Government.
Alun Davies: I certainly will. I think the Member provides some very great examples of the difference that town and community councils can make. I know, growing up in Tredegar myself, that Tredegar Town Council was always a force for good in the town, and today is, I think, a model of what a town council can achieve for the population it serves. The examples that the Member has given in the Vale of...
Alun Davies: I am aware of the concerns that have been raised with the Member by, I think, Welshpool Town Council. I will give some consideration to the points that he raises, but I will say to him as well that there is already guidance available to town and community councils on how they manage their finances. We have a practitioner's guide, which has been published by One Voice Wales and the Society of...
Alun Davies: The Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011, as amended, requires the independent remuneration panel to hold an eight-week consultation on its draft report and produce its final annual report by 28 February. Its determinations then take effect in the next financial year.
Alun Davies: The Conservative Member for South Wales Central has described what my expectations are as well. I would say, very gently, that we are at the beginning of this process, rather than halfway through or at the completion of it. PSBs are, at the moment, undertaking their consultation. The Member would be very welcome, of course, to contribute to his own PSB with those observations, and I would...
Alun Davies: Currently, all public services boards are consulting on their objectives as part of their well-being plans. Local well-being plans must explain why the objectives the public services boards have chosen will maximise their contribution to achieving their national well-being goals. I will say to Members that I have seen some of these plans. The quality of some of them is, quite frankly,...
Alun Davies: Positive progress has been made by public services boards to meet their obligations under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Having published their assessments of local well-being, PSBs are now consulting on their draft well-being plans. The focus must then shift to making a difference for their communities.
Alun Davies: No. It’s a matter for local authorities to take those decisions. I have no intention at all of interfering or commenting or making observations on those decisions. I said yesterday in the debate we had that local authority leaders and local authorities are dealing with extraordinarily difficult times, and I have to say that any Conservative Member who comes to this Chamber to complain and...
Alun Davies: I absolutely will, Deputy Presiding Officer. I know that the Member for Newport East has championed a healthy lifestyle and an active lifestyle for many years in this place, and he actually lives it as well, which is a constant example to the rest of us. Can I say this: Newport Live benefits from a strong relationship, with a forward-looking council in Newport, with a dynamic leadership in...
Alun Davies: I certainly will. I'm looking across at the Cabinet Secretary, hoping that he's going to indicate in some way that he did make that commitment [Laughter.] He is. On the basis of that, I reiterate that commitment from the point of view of the Government today.
Alun Davies: Local authority services play a vitally important role in the lives of all citizens in Wales. The Welsh Government continues to protect funding for all our local authorities, so that those vital services, both statutory and non-statutory, can go on being provided. Local service delivery, however, is for local determination.
Alun Davies: I'm interested, Deputy Presiding Officer, in the point she makes about the public being excluded from meetings. Members may be interested to know that I took the opportunity to attend full council in Blaenau Gwent last Thursday morning when I was in my constituency, and I was asked to leave the meeting at one point whilst they debated and discussed issues from which the public were excluded....
Alun Davies: I agree with the whole of her question, and at risk of simply repeating her own words, I think we do celebrate 100 years since the beginning of extending the franchise to everybody in this country. I've already spoken to a Minister at the Cabinet Office about UK Government plans to celebrate that anniversary, and certainly the Welsh Government will wish to support and take part in that...
Alun Davies: The Member is tempting me to get onto very dangerous ground here. May I just say that my personal view as an individual is that I support STV? I think that is the system that provides the greatest accountability and provides a fair vote to everyone across the nation—in this place, in local government, and, frankly, in Westminster, too. But I'm not sure that in saying that I represent the...
Alun Davies: I agree with the Plaid Cymru spokesperson in her analysis—perhaps not every single word of it, but certainly the main thrust of her message. I understand that. May I say this? I think it's important that we find a balance. This is a discussion I had this morning, as it happens, not just with the leader of Torfaen, who's already been mentioned, but also the leader of Caerphilly, about the...
