There seems to be a sense of Déjà vu at the moment following last week’s announcement that local government reorganisation is back on the agenda.

You may remember previous plans were scrapped in 2016 after attracting fierce criticism from councillors, community groups and local residents.

These included proposals to scrap the Vale and merge with Cardiff.

Just like then the proposals will be disastrous for the Vale of Glamorgan, leading to us being ignored even more.

We already gets a raw deal from the Welsh Government and I have long called for a fairer funding settlement.

Losing our identity and a council to stand up for local people will only make things worse.

The irony is this is happening at a time when people are demanding decisions be taken closer to home.

I’m relaunching the campaign to Save the Vale and I’m asking you to join me to make sure we are heard loud and clear.

I’m saddened the Welsh Government haven’t learned their lesson – but we mustn’t forget we’ve defeated these proposals before.

It’s time to do so again.

Talking of the raw-deal the Vale gets I see the Welsh Government have attempted to defend their decision to starve our schools of desperately needed funds.

I’m disappointed by this not least because I hoped the plea issued by the Vale Council would be the start of constructive talks to get the funding we deserve.

But I’m also disappointed with the way they’ve gone about doing so.

They’ve claimed it’s simply a matter for the Vale Council who are responsible for allocating the budget.

While true this misses the whole point of the Council’s plea which formed the basis of their letter to the Cabinet Secretary.

The Welsh Government work out the Vale’s block grant through a series of service based criteria – known as Indicator-Based Assessments.

For education, the Vale already spends more than recommended by the Welsh Government’s own IBA – by allocating monies from elsewhere.

So we’re back where we started, the Welsh Government don’t fund us properly.

This is despite the UK Government providing Wales with record funding far higher than anything Labour delivered during their 13 years in office.

And the Welsh Government should remember that the very council they are blaming was Labour-run until last May.

Many of the spending decisions they are now criticising were taken under Labour, something they should bear in mind.