Welsh minister wants to force councils to collaborate
- Published: 09 June 2008 16:15
- Author: Mark Smulian
- More by this Author
- Last Updated: 10 June 2008 10:44
Wales' social justice and local government minister Brian Gibbons wants powers to force councils to collaborate.
The controversial step is part of a shake-up he has planned for the Wales Programme for Improvement.
He told an Association for Public Service Excellence conference that he wanted a reserve power "to direct collaboration between local authorities where it appears that citizens' or community interests would be best served by collaborative working".
Proposals 'unworkable'
The Welsh Local Government Association has complained that this would be unworkable and contrary to local democracy.
Dr Gibbons said the power would be rarely used, possibly where a service delivery failure could best be put right by collaboration.
He said best value would be replaced in Wales with a wider duty on councils to improve.
They would compare their performance with each other and publish the results.
Dr Gibbons said: "Best value encourages short-termism and only focuses on incremental changes in measurable service outputs.
"This can lead to discouraging both longer-term strategy development and collaborative working."
