THE debate at the Vale of Glamorgan Council meeting last week about the proposed voluntary merger with Bridgend turned out to be a bit of a Dickensian affair.

The ghost of Christmas past was clearly visible from councillors of different political persuasions. The image of the ‘old candle-carrying’ South Glamorgan was raised repeatedly to describe how Cardiff would get the lion's share of resources, (no mention that Cardiff had three times the number of tax payers). There were frequent references to the council leader being bullied by the Minister to move away from the previous, almost unanimous, council decision that the council were doing a great job and should be left alone. Gone are those days of harmony when just one councillor disagreed with the rest.

However, the ghost of Christmas present emerged when most councillors failed to address criticisms of local government, the very high number of councillors in Wales, and a probable increase in council tax.

There were some comments relating to the council crossing the Welsh Government red-lines of Health Board boundaries, European aid money and preferred merging partners, but very little about how a Bridgend outcome would produce many more Vale councillors than a Cardiff merger.

The council’s submission to WG was described as weak and that it failed to make the case for a Bridgend merger particularly due to the lack of convincing evidence of public engagement. The issue was summarised by the leader as a simple case of ABC: anyone but Cardiff, because that would be a takeover and we wouldn’t want that would we? Secretly, I suspect some felt that may be the best way forward.

And then there was the ghost of Christmas yet to come. The possibility of just six councils in Wales; regional local government structures; massive reductions in public expenditure and the fate of political careers in the hands of a very unpopular Minister. It doesn’t look like a happy ending for Tiny Tim.

There was the occasional lack of Christmas spirit during the debate but the vote was a predictable win for the Labour led administration with a decent number of votes against and an unsurprising number of abstentions. How times change!

“Bah," said Scrooge, "Humbug.”

Dennis Harkus

FocusBARRY member