26 October 2007
Proposals to reform local government in Northern Ireland have been heavily watered down.
The Review of Public Administration recommended that 26 district councils should merge into seven 'super-councils' with new powers over housing, planning, local roads, regeneration and the fire service. The proposals were accepted by direct rule ministers, but strongly opposed by the unionist parties and the Social Democratic and Labour Party.
Now Environment Minister Arlene Foster, a member of the Democratic Unionist Party, has published 'interim findings' of a review of the RPA's proposals. It suggests that housing, the fire service, most of planning and all roads bar public realm schemes should not transfer to councils.
A move to a seven-council model was also rejected, with an 11- or 15-council structure now apparently favoured.
But a disappointed Northern Ireland Local Government Association president Arnold Hatch said: 'All the evidence shows that councils require a significant set of services to serve their communities effectively.'
PFoct2007
