Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services – in the Senedd at 1:40 pm on 28 February 2018.
Well, from that it appears that the only thing that has been achieved is the waste of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money and the time of Welsh Government officials in holding consultation upon consultation, with proposals on legislation that will now be ignored. At least with the most recent White Paper, there was a way forward that didn't require local authority mergers. So, can I ask you first of all what negotiations took place in Cabinet before you decided to put aside the work of your predecessor? Can you also explain to us today what the next action points are? Will you now be turning your back entirely on the White Paper and the outcomes of the consultation related to that? What will be the timetable for this u-turn? Will you create a new map for authority mergers? Is that the intention? If that is the intention, how will you succeed where Leighton Andrews failed?