Anyone interested in democracy and accountability of local government should worry about the Cardiff region’s new corporate joint committee

The Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) embraces the 10 local authority areas covering South East Wales: Blaenau Gwent; Bridgend; Caerphilly; Cardiff; Merthyr Tydfil; Monmouthshire; Newport; Rhondda Cynon Taf; Torfaen; and Vale of Glamorgan. With a population of 1.5 million it includes almost half the total population of Wales and half its economic output.

These authorities worked together, with the support of Welsh Government, to negotiate a City Deal with the UK Treasury. Signed in 2016, this promised £1.2 billion of infrastructure investment for the region, most of which would go towards the South Wales Metro. CCR was then formed as a contractual structure to deliver the City Deal.

Last March, Welsh Government issued regulations under the new Local Government and Elections Act for the creation of Corporate Joint Committees (CJCs). The number and size of local authorities has long been disputed, with arguments for economies of scale countered by those for local decisions. Ad hoc Shared Services arrangements seek to cut costs without reducing local power. CJCs will see a formal transfer of some functions from local councils.

The South East Wales CJC will come into being on 28 February, taking over the functions of CCR, which has already been acting as an embryonic CJC around the City Deal. The CJC will prepare a Strategic Development Plan (SDP) and develop a Regional Transport Plan, plus a broad remit to promote economic wellbeing.

Strategic and transport planning on a regional basis offers advantages. The Future Wales National Plan recognises South East Wales as a coherent economic area. The CJC might reverse the split of Cardiff from its Valleys since the abolition of the county of Glamorgan in 1974. Regional planning for homes, businesses and infrastructure could spread growth and ease pressures on land use.

But anyone interested in democracy and accountability of local government should worry about how CJCs will operate. Like other organisations across Wales, Cardiff Civic Society (CCS) aims to conserve, sustain and enhance the natural and built environment of our city for the benefit of current and future generations. Our experience, while pursuing these aims, of local and regional politics makes us wary of how the CJC might work.

One concern is that CJCs could add to the complexity of decision-making. Politicians and managers are already reluctant to take responsibility for fixing issues and too ready to see them as somebody else’s problem. There is little transparency, leaving those who need solutions struggling to find out who might provide them.

Examples abound. Waste has long been seeping into Cardiff Bay, but Cardiff Council, Cardiff Harbour Authority, Natural Resources Wales (NRW), and Vale of Glamorgan Council all seem keener to chide each other than to fix it. It has even been blamed on the defunct Cardiff Bay Development Corporation. Who owns stopping raw sewage entering Barry Docks: Dŵr Cymru or NRW? The Vale Council will not even raise it with them on residents’ behalf.

Cardiff Capital Region was set up to manage the City Deal, but it is Transport for Wales who will deliver the Metro, while Cardiff Council has its own plans for Crossrail and Circle line. The CCR Passenger Vision acknowledges that “progress requires a holistic approach across multiple organisations who will need to work together”. Indeed. Today, none of them seem to know what is happening, or when. Or if they do know, they are not informing residents.

Will the imminent creation of Corporate Joint Committees across Wales define clear lines of responsibility on local issues, or just add another opportunity at best for confusion and at worst deliberate evasion?

There will be little democratic accountability in how CJCs will function. Its members will not be elected. The South East Wales CJC will be made up of local council leaders plus an office- holder of the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority. These members will be able to co- opt others and give them voting rights. Several Chief Executives sit on the CCR Cabinet.

Unelected CJCs will have immense power. The South East Wales CJC regulations empower it to ‘do anything’ on economic wellbeing, transport or planning. English Metro regions have an elected mayor. London elects both a mayor and an Assembly. A regional mayor might not be the answer, but elections give voters some control, if only to throw failures out. Do we really want weaker local democracy in Wales than in England?

It will no doubt be claimed that, as the primary members of the CJC will be elected council leaders, democracy is ensured. But greater remoteness from voters always leads to less accountable politicians. The Cabinet system already marginalises most elected councillors from decisions, and the CJC regulations will give them no recognised role.

Like other authorities, Cardiff is now renewing its Local Development Plan. The new LDP will define how the city develops over the next 15 years, with impacts across the whole region. Consultation has been limited and inhibited by lockdowns, but campaigning by CCS and others has led to some changes, notably including the objective of a carbon neutral city by 2030, in line with One Planet Cardiff, even though the detail is still to be argued about.

But LDPs will become subordinate to the Strategic Development Plan, once the new CJC has agreed one. The CCR decarbonisation target is much less ambitious than Cardiff’s, seeking only a 55% reduction in emissions from its energy system by 2035. How much say will the public across the region have on the SDP? There is a vague suggestion in CCR papers that SDP consultation should follow similar lines to that for the LDP, but will it?

There is a widespread sense of citizen powerlessness on matters such as big developments, with residents feeling ignored. Only around a third of voters will turn out for the May local elections. That is not healthy for democracy. We need political structures that are closer to people not more distant. Citizens’ Assemblies could advance government of the people, by the people, for the people. Unelected Corporate Joint Committees will certainly not.

Lyn Eynon, 13 February 2022