COMMUNITY councillors issued a final plea to Vale of Glamorgan Council over proposed boundary changes that will see fewer people representing some rural communities.
Boundary Commission for Wales’ plans, which will see an overall reduction in the number of community councils and community councillors across the Vale, were endorsed by Vale of Glamorgan Council in April.
The move is aimed at making councils more resilient and increasing the number of community councils holding regular elections.
However, it has also been called “scandalous” and “devastating” by some councillors, with one county council member, Cllr Christine Cave, saying the move amounts to “throwing dedicated community councillors on the… scrapheap.”
Speaking at a Vale Council community liaison meeting on Tuesday, May 21, Conservative county councillor, Cllr Stephen Haines, said: “This… is pretty devastating to the rural Vale and is removing a lot of intrinsic character to a lot of these community councils.”
Vale of Glamorgan Council chief executive, Rob Thomas, said the local authority has already sent its comments on the proposed changes to Welsh Ministers for review.
He also said he was sure that if individual councillors wish to make further objections, they can do so again.
One of the proposals in the Boundary Commission for Wales’ plan is to abolish Llandough and Michaelston-Le-Pit and Leckwith community councils to create a new community called Llandough and Cwrtyrala.
A member of Michaelston-Le-Pit and Leckwith Community Council, Cllr Bill Gaskell, said: “Our interests are not identical with those of Llandough. We look [with] some sadness at the prospect of our community council being abolished.”
A member of St Bride’s Major Community Council, Cllr Angela Parry, said she and her fellow members are against the recommendations which will see their council merge with Ewenny Community Council.
She said: “We are very fond of Ewenny Community Council. However, their community is very different to St Brides Major which already comprises of a number of villages and hamlets.”
Colwinston Community Council is one of the community councils that will see it’s number of representatives reduce.
When it merges with Llangan Community Council, the number of councillors representing the community of Colwinston will reduce from seven to three.
Not too far away, the communities of Llandow, Llanfair and Llanmaes will come together to form a single community council.
A member of Llandow Community Council, Cllr Janette Shaw, said the move will make electors more remote from democracy.
One of the arguments in favour of the boundary commission’s plans is that having larger councils with fewer councillors will strengthen democracy in rural communities and make seats more competitive.
A Welsh Government report on local government elections states that 64% of community council seats in Wales were uncontested in the 2017 local government elections.
The same report states that in the Vale of Glamorgan that year 129 community council seats were elected uncontested and 42 were empty.
However, Cllr Shaw said the changes to communities will make it more difficult for people to participate in local democracy, adding that fewer people will step forward to become a community councillor if they don’t feel like their voices are being heard.
“This is… depleting local democracy in the rural areas to the detriment [of] the local communities,” she said.
One county councillor said his community, St Nicholas and Bonvilston, is one of the beneficiaries of the proposed change.
However, Cllr Ian Perry added that it will not get to the root of solving some of the main issues that community councils face.
Cllr Perry, who is also the chair of his community council, said: “It is a struggle to get people. We leaflet for new members. We can’t get new members.”
He went on to say: “Lots of people… said they are too old or too busy.
“It is a big problem and reducing the number of councils won’t solve this problem and make us more democratic.”
Rob Thomas said: “Although they [communities] will be part of bigger building blocks… the representation will still exist at ward level.”
He added later: “What they [the boundary commission] are, I believe, seeking to achieve is a level of representation which is relevant to the areas.”
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