Sometimes, as people argue over structures and powers, the reason for local government is often forgotten: to provide high-quality, cost-effective local services; to react to local need; to do all of the above with a democratic, local accountability.

On community and town councils, will the same powers be given to all community and town councils, irrespective of size, and what happens in those urban areas, such as Swansea East, that do not currently have community councils?

I again reiterate my support for votes at 16, something my friend Julie Morgan has argued for for as long as I can remember.

I am pleased to see supermajority voting for changes to local government voting systems to stop the voting system changing almost on an annual basis.

On people who can stand for election, why not allow those who are indirectly employed by a council to stand? We’ve had a situation earlier this year where somebody was disqualified— he worked for a body that was partly funded by the council he belonged to, along with eight other councils. Those indirectly employed, I think, should be allowed to stand.

What reasons does the Cabinet Secretary see for not bringing in electronic voting? Young people expect to use their phones for almost everything and to vote electronically, and they find it rather strange, going into a school hall, being given a blunt pencil and a piece of paper.

I welcome working across councils in transport, strategic land use and economic development. These, of course, are not new, are they? I remember—I’m sure the Cabinet Secretary does—the old county development plan. I was also chair of the west Wales transport group called SWWITCH. I was also a member of the west Wales economic forum. There was an awful lot of hard work being done between Pembroke and Swansea well before any talk of either local government reorganisation or any talk of the need for change in cross-party working. So, none of the above is novel. The question I’ve got is: why are the proposals for mid and south-west Wales rather than the Swansea bay city region? How does the Cabinet Secretary believe that people in Welshpool have anything in common with the people in Swansea in terms of either transport, economic development or land use?