6. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on strengthening local democracy in Mid and West Wales? OAQ52868

I intend to introduce a Bill in the next calendar year that will give effect to a number of proposals set out in the 'Electoral Reform in Local Government in Wales' consultation paper that will contribute to strengthening local democracy across the whole of the country, including Mid and West Wales.  

I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that response. In reply to Mark Isherwood, a moment ago, he said that it wasn't the role of Ministers in this place to second guess the decisions of local authorities. But, of course, that's exactly what his colleague, the Cabinet Secretary for energy, has done in respect of a planning decision at Llandegley Rocks in Radnorshire. I think he heard the exchange that took place between us earlier on. In this particular instance, the local authority turned the planning application down by an almost unanimous vote. Does he agree with me that it does tend to undermine local democracy if Ministers, for reasons that cannot be described as of overriding national importance, overturn the decisions of those who are elected on the ground to represent the interests of the people who themselves overwhelmingly opposed this proposal? 

Presiding Officer, the Member is tempting me into a terrible indiscretion. I have learnt through bitter experience not to speculate on decisions on any planning issue and it is not my intention to do so this afternoon.  

Powys County Council recently unanimously passed a motion that stated that local authorities too often lose the confidence of the electorate, because they appear detached and unaccountable, and councillors of all parties supported this motion put forward by Dolforwyn county councillor Gareth Pugh. It was agreed that more needs to be done to engage and enthuse the electorate to make local government a more vibrant and relevant part of our communities. These concerns come about as a result of the local authority not engaging as sufficiently as perhaps they could have with regard to a large recycling facility planning application at Abermule in my constituency. From your perspective, Cabinet Secretary, is there anything that you can do in terms of providing local county councils with guidance in terms of how they can improve their engagement with the electorate when it comes to large, major decisions?

With the consent of the Presiding Officer, I won't refer to individual decisions of individual authorities, but what I would like to be able to say is that all of us, on all sides of the Chamber, want to see a vibrant democracy in all parts of this country and that means local authorities, ourselves as local Members, and Members of the UK Parliament as well, all participating in local debates about the future of our communities.

I very much welcome the decision of the National Assembly to introduce the Welsh Youth Parliament and I know that I'm seeking to talk to the people who are standing for the Blaenau Gwent seat, where I have a particular interest in seeking to—[Inaudible.] I don't think my days of standing for any youth institution are ahead of me, let me say. [Laughter.] I hope we will all be participating in that debate—

We were the future once.

We were the future. [Laughter.] And I hope we will all be able to join with those young people to engage in a debate about the nature of our democracy. 

The proposals that were put forward by my predecessor, the current Cabinet Secretary for Finance, and I, in terms of strengthening local democracy, were to do exactly that: to strengthen political participation, to strengthen participation in decision making and to strengthen accountability of decision makers locally. I hope that, when it comes to a debate on this Bill, we will all, on all sides of the Chamber, participate in that discussion and ensure that we reflect on how we further strengthen democratic accountability in all parts of this country.

I believe that community councils can have a very important role in strengthening people's democratic participation and feeling that services are delivered in a way that's relevant to them. One of the recommendations of the independent review panel on community and town councils was that the whole of Wales should be covered by community and town councils—of course, that's not the case now—in order to provide place-based services as envisaged in that report. I wonder what your view of that is, Minister. In order to strengthen community councils, are there steps that the Welsh Government can take to increase the pool of qualified and appropriate town and community council clerks across Wales? I know that, particularly, some of the smaller community councils in mid and west Wales sometimes struggle to find the right person to support them. 

Can I very much welcome the report of the panel on town and community councils, which reported to us on 3 October? The recommendations, I thought, were very persuasive in many different ways. I'm a great fan of local community and town councils. I know we've benefited greatly from the work of Tredegar Town Council at home. Can I say that I think there are a number of ways in which I want to take forward the reports and the recommendations? I'm anxious to ensure that we do have that conversation about the role of town and community councils and do so in the informed way that the panel have been able to go about their work. I will be asking the views of Members on how we wish to take this forward. We have proposals to make on doing so, but what I hope we'll be able to do is to engage in a positive debate about the positive impact that town and community councils can have, both on our accountability and our democracy and also on how we deliver services across the country. Whether we wish to create new councils or merge existing councils is a matter for conversation locally. There is current law that will enable that to happen. But I will look towards bringing together amendments to the Bill next February, if that is necessary, in order to give life to some of those recommendations.