§ Mr. BerryTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what factors underlay the decision not to recreate the historic county of Glamorgan as a unitary authority. [18505]
§ Mr. Gwilym JonesThe fundamental principles underpinning local government reorganisation were that: local authorities should be democratically accountable to their electorate; the roles of local authorities, and their responsibilities for service delivery, should be clearly understood by local people; local authority boundaries should, as far as possible, reflect and strengthen existing community loyalties; and local public services should be of high quality, and be efficient, economical and effective.
Wherever practicable, Ministers attempted to recreate the pre-1974 counties, but a unitary authority based on the historic administrative boundaries of Glamorgan would have resulted in a unitary authority of some 1.3 million electors—far too large to accord satisfactorily with all the principles set out.