Did you mean representations -taxation speaker:Sam Rowlands?
Sam Rowlands: ...members went to the same university, where the current chair of the board was vice-chancellor. You can perhaps understand why some of my residents are concerned that perhaps there isn't proper representation, a broad representation across Wales, and, in particular, in north Wales. So, Minister, do you believe that if we are to have a true representation and to maximise the potential of...
Sam Rowlands: ...points you just raised there in terms of that consultation, Mike Hedges made some really important points around how sparse some of these areas could be, and therefore the risk, with proportional representation, of losing that local touch, because, actually, it's such a big area to cover, and the fundamentals of councils and councillors are actually about being connected to their...
Sam Rowlands: ...leaders across the country, is their democratic nature, or perhaps lack of, and the potential impact of powers being taken away from councils and those democratically elected to make decisions and representations on behalf of their communities. In your letter to the Local Government and Housing Committee on 29 October, you stated that CJCs aim to bring more coherence to and strip out some...
Sam Rowlands: ...statement. The first is in relation to flexibility. You outlined the work that's being done to ensure more flexibility for council meetings, which is, of course, welcome, to encourage that broad representation and improve accessibility. However, it's crucially important that our local councillors don't lose the focus of the in-person nature of representation as well. Often, some of the...
Sam Rowlands: ... because there are going to be chief executives having to be employed and there will be chief financial officers having to be employed, amongst other auditors et cetera, et cetera? Thirdly, the representation—how it will be fairly represented by individual councils and how that will be distributed across those corporate joint committees. Llywydd, it's not often that I do quote from the...
