Diolch, Llywydd. I move the motion in the name of Paul Davies AM. The recent announcement of the Green Paper by the Cabinet Secretary on 20 March, without any prior discussions with us as AMs, is the third attempt by this Welsh Labour Government to reform the structure of local government in Wales. One would have thought, as a result of two previous failed attempts to bring forward legislation to futureproof our local authorities, that this attempt would have been done in a more strategic, considerate and engaging manner. Despite previous rhetoric about wanting to work in a respectful manner with local authority members and AMs, the proposals going forward actually show a distinct lack of acknowledgment of the effect that this top-down diktat has on those working within the sector. 

How disappointing also that the promises by the previous Cabinet Secretary, Mark Drakeford AM, who did engage with us, actually, in offering up a regional form of working and assuring councils of a 10-year stable platform from which to take forward reform, have simply been rubbished by such a heavy-handed and dictatorial approach. The WLGA have raised concerns, accusing you, Cabinet Secretary, in their words, of 'recycling failed plans', through the continuance of top-down politics towards local authorities that we saw fail in the fourth Assembly under the previous proposals for forced mergers. Your intent to use statutory frameworks to force mergers through is an insult to those in this sector who have more than jumped through enough hoops to satisfy the Welsh Labour Government over the past 20 years on your watch. The WLGA and others have stated that most academic analysis concludes that such reform programmes rarely deliver the savings or changes in performance that were hoped for. 

When scrutinised on these proposals, you clearly stated that you have engaged and consulted with the sector. However, I know, from my own visits to local authorities across the political divide, and through talking to many elected members, that they were as surprised as we were by such a bullish approach in announcing these disruptive and counter-productive plans. Councillor Thomas, leader of Vale of Glamorgan, categorically stated that

'Typically there has been no meaningful discussion or engagement with councils, or more importantly the local residents that will be affected, ahead of these plans being published.'

A Wrexham councillor has also termed the proposed merger with Flintshire an expensive disaster waiting to happen, whilst the council's independent leader described the ongoing debate as 

'a cross between Fawlty Towers, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em and Yes Minister'.

The Welsh Local Government Association stated to the ELGC committee during the previous proposals for forced mergers that it would be impossible for authorities to meet merger proposal costs without significant cuts to front-line services. Without a joined-up, strategic and professional approach, yet another set of proposals for forced mergers, lacking in any cost benefit or risk analysis, is destined to fail. This ham-fisted top-down approach from here is not the way forward. In a business setting, reform would start and it would finish by being led from within the very sector that one is looking to reform—incidentally, in this instance, a sector for which I have a tremendous amount of confidence and respect. As the leader of the WLGA, Councillor Debbie Wilcox, said,

'We didn't need Welsh Government to mandate us to work regionally. We just got on with it, because we recognised it was in the interests of the people and the communities we serve.'

Indeed, Councillor Peter Fox has said:

'Councils in south-east Wales have been working hard towards the last recommendations from the Welsh Government, which asked us to work collaboratively on regional footprints.'

And what a splendid example: the Cardiff capital region's city deal, with 10 local authorities all working together across the political divide to improve the economic prosperity of the region, brilliantly epitomised by the leader—