LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOUNDARY COMMISSION FOR WALES LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOUNDARY COMMISSION FOR WALES REVIEW OF PART OF THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN THE COUNTIES OF CEREDIGION AND PEMBROKESHIRE IN THE AREA OF THE COMMUNITY OF ST. DOGMAELS REPORT AND PROPOSALS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3. SCOPE AND OBJECT OF THE REVIEW 4. DRAFT PROPOSALS 5. SUMMARY OF REPRESENTATIONS RECEIVED IN RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT PROPOSALS 6. THE AFFECT OF ANY PROPOSALS ON THE COUNTY OF CEREDIGION 7. ASSESSMENT 8. PROPOSALS 9. CONSEQUENTIAL ARRANGEMENTS 10. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 11. RESPONSES TO THIS REPORT The Local Government Boundary Commission For Wales Caradog House 1-6 St Andrews Place CARDIFF CF10 3BE Tel Number: (029) 20395031 Fax Number: (029) 20395250 E-mail: [email protected] www.lgbc-wales.gov.uk Edwina Hart AM MBE Minister for Finance, Local Government and Communities The National Assembly for Wales REVIEW OF PART OF THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN THE COUNTIES OF CEREDIGION AND PEMBROKESHIRE IN THE AREA OF THE COMMUNITY OF ST. DOGMAELS REPORT AND PROPOSALS 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 We, the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales (the Commission), have completed the review of part of the boundary between the Counties of Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire in the area of the Community of St. Dogmaels and present our proposals for a new boundary. 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2.1 It is our view that, in the interests of effective and convenient local government the village of St. Dogmaels should be combined within one principal council area. Having considered the evidence available to us we have concluded that the Community of St. Dogmaels should be in the principal council area of Pembrokeshire. 3. SCOPE AND OBJECT OF THE REVIEW 3.1 Section 54(1) of the Local Government Act 1972 (the Act) provides that the Commission may in consequence of a review conducted by them make proposals to the National Assembly for Wales for effecting changes appearing to the Commission desirable in the interests of effective and convenient local government. Procedure 3.2 Section 60 of the Act lays down procedural guidelines, which are to be followed in carrying out a review. In line with that guidance, we wrote on 2 March 2000 to Ceredigion County Council, Pembrokeshire County Council, Cardigan Town Council, St. Dogmaels Community Council, the Members of Parliament for the local constituencies, the Assembly Members for the area, the local authority associations, the police authority for the area and political parties to inform them of our intention to conduct the review, to request their preliminary views. We invited the Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire County Councils to submit suggestions for changes to the boundary. We also publicised our intention to conduct the review in local newspapers circulating in the area and asked the councils to display a number of public notices. 1 4. DRAFT PROPOSALS 4.1 We received representations from Ceredigion County Council, Pembrokeshire County Council, Cardigan Town Council, St. Dogmaels Community Council, Jackie Lawrence MP, Simon Thomas MP, Elin Jones AM, 2 councillors and 189 other interested bodies and residents. These representations were taken into consideration and summarised in our Draft Proposals published on 15 December 2000. 4.2 Our Draft Proposals recommended that the whole of the village of St. Dogmaels be combined within one unitary authority and that the authority should be Pembrokeshire. We proposed that the boundary between the Counties of Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire in the area of the Community of St. Dogmaels should be realigned as shown in green on the map at Appendix 9 to include the areas marked Area A and Area B within the County of Pembrokeshire. 4.3 Copies of the Draft Proposals were sent to all the councils, bodies and individuals referred to in paragraph 2.2 seeking their views. A copy was also sent to anyone who had submitted preliminary comments. By public notice we also invited any other organisation or person with an interest in the review to submit their views. Copies of the Draft Proposals were made available for inspection at the offices of Ceredigion County Council, Pembrokeshire County Council and the Commission and were also deposited at the offices of the Dyfed- Powys Police Authority. 5. SUMMARY OF REPRESENTATIONS RECEIVED IN RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT PROPOSALS 5.1 We received representations from Ceredigion County Council, Pembrokeshire County Council, Cardigan Town Council, St. Dogmaels Community Council, Cilgerran Community Council, Jackie Lawrence MP, Dr Richard Edwards AM, Delyth Evans AM, Glyn Davies AM, two County Councillors, 3 Community and Town Councillors, 11 other organisations and 572 residents. A letter was also received on behalf of residents of the additional areas to the south east of St. Dogmaels that Pembrokeshire County Council suggested be transferred from Ceredigion to the Communities of Cilgerran and St. Dogmaels in Pembrokeshire. All of these representations were considered carefully before formulating our proposals. 5.2 Ceredigion County Council submitted a report. The full text of this report may be found at Appendix 1. The main points of the report are as follows: The Council believes that the Boundary Commission has not addressed the main issue, namely the provision of effective and convenient local government services in the combined St. Dogmaels village by one local authority. The Council agrees that the village should be “combined within one authority” and notes that both Councils have indicated that they “are confident that they would be able to provide an appropriate level of service to the combined village of St. Dogmaels”. The Council however takes issue with the reasons given in the Commission’s Draft Proposals for stating that the combined village should be placed within Pembrokeshire as follows: 2 i. Paragraph 3.12 of the Draft Proposals Report lists improvements in areas of service delivery, which, it is claimed, would follow if the combined village was located in Pembrokeshire. However, the same principle is true if Ceredigion administered the area. ii. Paragraph 3.13 states that “It is clear that some degree of cross-boundary provision of services would still be required whichever county the new community was in”. The County Council is at a loss to understand, should the combined village be placed in Ceredigion, which services its population would need to receive from Pembrokeshire County Council. It is the crux of the County Council’s case that the residents of the village currently turn to the town of Cardigan for services such as the library, leisure centre, swimming pool, secondary education etc and, with Ceredigion providing all the other services such as Social Services, Education, refuse collection, highways etc to a combined village, there would be no need for the population to be provided with any services at all by Pembrokeshire County Council, thus resulting in more effective and convenient local government. iii. In Paragraph 3.14 the Commission considered that the level of council charges was not “a primary reason for wanting the combined village of St. Dogmaels to be included within Pembrokeshire”. However, Ceredigion County Council pointed out that this is listed as the SECOND point made by St Dogmaels villagers. This hardly suggests that it isn’t one of the main reasons for them opting for the combined village to be placed in Pembrokeshire rather than Ceredigion. iv. The Council contend that the Commission’s statements that the River Teifi is a natural boundary (Paragraph 3.16) and that Bridgend is an integral part of Cardigan Town are contradictory. The suggested break-up of the area south of the river Teifi, in the view of the County Council, is therefore highly inconsistent and does not lead itself to effective and convenient local government. v. It is the Council’s view that the Commission has given more weight to emotion than to effective and convenient local government. It is the contention of the Council that the people currently living on the Pembrokeshire side of St. Dogmaels are regular users of the services provided by the Ceredigion County Council in Cardigan Town, and paid for by Ceredigion Council Tax payers, and that it is the intended purpose of the St. Dogmaels Community Council to wish to continue to see its people benefit from these services yet pay their Council Tax to another Authority. The people of St. Dogmaels would therefore benefit from paying lower Council Tax and still enjoy the services provided in Cardigan Town by the Ceredigion County Council and paid for by the people of Ceredigion. vi. The differing Council Tax levels in Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion are the product of a national formula, which is used to distribute resources between unitary councils. The formula is frequently reviewed and a recent review has seen the reduction in the differential between levels of Council Tax. As Ceredigion has consistently set its Council Tax levels below the National Assembly guidelines, in time, this is likely to result in an equalization of Council Taxes between the two authorities. vii. Ceredigion County Council contend that the people of St. Dogmaels make full use of the services provided by Ceredigion County Council and that it is only reasonable 3 for them to contribute to the costs of service provision. There is no evidence to suggest that this cost of service provision is higher in Ceredigion - on the contrary, it is the Revenue Support Grant distribution formula, which governs the level of Council Tax. It is undoubtedly more accountable if residents pay the Council, which provides the services. This is the essence of effective Local Government and public representation. viii. The County Council States that if St Dogmaels is transferred to Pembrokeshire, there will be a significant, and disproportionate switch of resources in favour of Pembrokeshire at the expense of the Council Tax payers of Ceredigion and it cannot be equitable to expect the Council Taxpayers of Ceredigion to meet the additional tax burden.