Wiping RCT off the map
Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly candidate for Pontypridd Mike Powell gives his views on proposed Council reorganisation:
The Labour party want to merge Councils across Wales and put RCT, Merthyr and Bridgend together. Now as I have said all along I have no problem with the idea of cutting the number of Councils and indeed Councillors, but do not agree with the way Leighton Andrews has been trying to push this forward. Indeed many of his Labour colleagues across Wales, including here in RCT, have voiced their objections.
If new Local Authorities are to be created then it should not be done simply by throwing existing ones together in such a seemingly haphazard fashion. I do not believe that an Authority of the size and geographical spread proposed will be of any benefit to us in RCT.
We've already lost many of our Police services to Merthyr and now Pontypridd Magistrates' Court is closing and that business moved to Merthyr. The Royal Glamorgan is being downgraded and services polarised at Merthyr and Bridgend. What is going to be left here, and who is standing up for us?
Those communities at the edge of RCT such as Groesfaen and Taff's Well who already feel side-lined will be even more remote and forgotten whilst areas such as Tonyrefail , already neglected, will lose out even more as they compete for input from the Council not only with Pontypridd but with Bridgend and Merthyr town centres, not to mention places such as Maesteg and Porthcawl.
It is all in line with something called the Wales Spatial Plan published by the Welsh Labour Government a few years ago. In it Pontypridd and indeed RCT generally just becomes a forgotten link in between.
The Labour party are not going to oppose it and fight against their own. There is more reason than ever to elect someone who is not afraid to stand up against their proposals and for the people of this constituency.
Vote for the change you need to see.
