THE Vale of Glamorgan Council has submitted its response to the latest consultation on local government reform, strongly opposing the proposals to merge the authority with Cardiff.

The council’s response has been developed with the involvement of officers from across the organisation as well as elected members.

The initial draft response was agreed by cabinet on May 21 and was then considered by the Corporate Performance and Resources Scrutiny Committee on May 24. The final response was then agreed by cabinet on June 6 and submitted to Welsh Government.

Cllr John Thomas, leader of the Council, said: “We as a council have carefully considered Welsh Government’s latest proposals for the future of local government and feel that the case has not been made for council mergers.

“The Green Paper remains wedded to the idea that fewer, larger authorities are somehow more capable of being agile and responsive to local need.

“The Vale of Glamorgan Council has been recognised as the best performing council in Wales for the past three years. This proven success in meeting the needs of Vale residents should not be jeopardised.

“The idea that councils must be forced to merge for them to work better together also fails to recognise the significant amount of collaborative working that this council in particular is already doing, not just with neighbouring local authorities, but also with other public, private and voluntary sector partners.

“Our opposition to these latest proposals has been agreed by elected members from all political parties. This demonstrates how poorly conceived this latest plan to interfere with local government in Wales is, and of how negatively it would impact on the Vale."