I’m pleased to take part in this debate. It’s important that we have strong local government in Wales, and of course we’ve got some great examples of local authorities that are working for all of the people who live in those local authority areas, including, of course, Monmouthshire County Council in particular. We all know that there have been significant pressures on public finances across the board in recent years, because of the legacy of the previous Labour Government, and that has provided significant challenges to local authorities in terms of making things go further with the limited resources that they have. But I have to say that some of our rural local authorities have struggled particularly to meet these challenges because of the unfair local government funding formula that we have here in Wales. I think it should come as no surprise to us, therefore, that in terms of things like school closures, we’ve seen more closures in rural local authorities than in other parts of Wales. In fact, since 2006, there have 157 primary school closures in Wales, and 95 of those—60 per cent—have been in rural local authorities. So, the figures simply speak for themselves.

Now, of course, it’s not just our schools. We’ve also seen massive reductions in other services. We’ve got the great accolade of being one of the best performing recycling nations in the world, and that’s something of which I am very proud, and many homeowners and businesses have worked with local authorities to deliver those stunning results. But you have to take the public with you when you’re making significant changes to waste collection regimes, and I think that some local authorities now are beginning to step too far as a result of the financial pressures that they are faced with in reducing their waste collection services. Just look at local authorities like Conwy, for example, at the moment, where 10,000 households in that local authority area are now facing four-weekly bin collections—extremely unpopular, leading to an increase in fly-tipping, leading to an increase in litter, making the environment look very unattractive, and potential public health risks associated with things like clinical waste and pet waste in people’s bins for long periods of time. You can see that these sorts of financial pressures, because of that unfair rural element of the funding formula, are leading to real problems in some of our local authorities.

There are different ways to deliver services, and one of the positive things that’s taking place in my own constituency is the business improvement district that we have now in the Colwyn Bay area, where you have businesses there that are working to add value to the work that the local authority is doing to improve the fortunes of the Bay of Colwyn, working collaboratively with the chamber of trade, with the voluntary organisations in the Bay of Colwyn and, indeed, with other stakeholders like the town and community councils that represent that area to deliver some real improvements in the town.

It’s early days; the business improvement district was only established on 1 April 2016, but already there are some green shoots that I think are looking very promising for the future of Colwyn Bay. That is one of the things that I believe will drive the renaissance that’s taken place in the town in recent years. Those sorts of collaborations are things that I would very much like to see more of. I wonder, Cabinet Secretary, in your response to today’s debate, whether you can tell us whether there are any more strategic things that the Welsh Government might be able to do in order to promote that sort of positive engagement and collaboration between the businesses in our communities across Wales and indeed local authorities, whether they be the unitary authorities or indeed the minor authorities too.