The Assistant Chief Executive Legal and Regulatory Services and Monitoring Officer, submitted a report that provided Members with information to enable a response to be drafted for the consultation on the Local Government (Wales) Draft Bill.

In terms of background information, he confirmed that the Minister’s introduction to the draft Bill was attached at Appendix A to the report, and that responses to the consultation could be made on the form provided for Members at Appendix B to the report. He had provided Members with a briefing  in advance of the meeting (in the form of a Presentation)  on the implications of the draft Bill, prior to the consideration of the report, as well as tabling proposed draft responses from Members as a result of that briefing.

The Assistant Chief Executive Legal and Regulatory Services and Monitoring Officer, stated that Members would note that the contents of the report provided a broad overview of the draft Bill, rather than an in-depth view. He added that there were questions asked within the consultation on matters that were not contained within the draft Bill, and the report advised on those matters.

He confirmed that the remainder of the report provided an overview of the draft Bill, and reminded Council that the consultation questions were outlined in Appendix A to the report.

He then advised that the draft Bill covered the following areas, and these specific areas were both covered and elaborated upon in the report:-

·         Part 1 – Local Government areas and County Councils

·         Part 2 – General Power of Competence

·         Part 3 – Dealing with promoting access to Local Government

·         Part 4 – Dealing with the functions of County Councils and Members

·         Part 5 – Providing for the improvement of governance

·         Part 6 – Providing for the review of Community Council arrangements

·         Part 7 – Dealing with workforce matters

·         Part 8 – The interpretation section

A Member referred to Part 7 of the Bill, in relation to workforce matters and the setting up of a Public Services Staff Commission and recruitment and retention of staff issues, and questioned clarification of the role of the Commission and its legislative position. He questioned whether this was an example of micro management.

The Leader referred to a response made in respect of the type of question raised by the Member as outlined above as part of the consultation as follows, (ie under Part 7 of the draft Bill), as follows:-

“The WLGA has previously supported the establishment of a Public Service Staff Commission (PSSC) to specifically assist with the development of guidance to help Councils manage their workforces as part of any local government re-organisation. Section 178 does repeal the role of the PSSC in 2021 to reflect that the PSSC is specifically to assist with local government reorganisation planned for 2020.

The WLGA would not wish to see a statutory PSSC set up if there is no local government re-organisation. Therefore the WLGA would wish to see that that the establishment of the statutory PSSC and its role is predicated on and explicitly linked to local government re-organisation. There would need to be clarity and a renewed agreement on the matter of any continuation of a non-statutory PSSC if no local government re-organisation should take place.”

A Member also felt that power in terms of the governance of bodies such as the Central South Consortium for Education, should as part of the Bill proposals be the responsibility of BCBC as local authority, as powers regarding schools and proposals for their improvement should lie with the local authority, rather than directly through the arm of an outside organisation as part of a collaboration agreement. He felt that this should be considered in conjunction with Local Government Re-organisation proposals (LGR), and moved a motion to this effect which was duly seconded.

Members then proceeded to have an electronic vote on this amendment, which fell by 31 votes to 9, with 1 abstention.

The Assistant Chief Executive Legal and Regulatory Services and Monitoring Officer advised that any individual views expressed by Members, regarding the consultation on the Local Government (Wales) Draft Bill, could be sent directly to Welsh Government for their consideration.

The Assistant Chief Executive Legal and Regulatory Services and Monitoring Officer then responded to a number of questions raised by Members, following which it was

RESOLVED:                      That Council determined its response to the consultation as outlined in the report and the paper tabled at the meeting, together with the recommended amendments suggested to the points made in respect of the tabled paper.