Shadow Communities and Local Government Minister and North Wales MS, Mark Isherwood, has hit out at the Labour Welsh Government for voting down all his amendments in yesterday’s Stage 3 proceedings of the Welsh Government’s Local Government and Elections (Wales) Bill.
Mark put forward a series of amendments which sought to share of power with the regions, counties, communities and people of Wales, but Labour voted against them all.
Further amendments he proposed sought to give voice to the concerns of the expert bodies across Wales impacted by this Labour Welsh Government legislation, but these were also voted down by Labour.
Speaking during the meeting, he said:
“A lot of our amendments to this Bill as a whole are to embed the principles of co-production and asset-based community development within the Bill and therefore into the delivery of public involvement strategies, as well as the design and delivery of public services.
“Co-production is about building resilient communities, confidence and capacity, it is about it seeing everyone as equal partners in local services - breaking down the barriers between people who provide services and those who use them.
“Co-producing public services with users and communities goes beyond models of service-user consultation to better delivery of health, social services and other services to an ageing population, to people facing illness and disability, to the economically inactive, and to those living in social isolation.”
Speaking in support of his Amendment seeking to ensure that local people and local community-based organisations are involved within the decision-making processes of Corporate Joint Committees (CJC), he said:
“As I said during stage two proceedings: ‘’we do hear a lot now of positive language from members of all parties about issues such as co-production, community empowerment, citizen engagement, but in reality, it's sparse on the ground’’.
“As such, this amendment seeks to ensure that the principles of co-production are fully embedded on the face of the Bill to require Corporate Joint Committees to actually deliver the involvement of local people and local community based organisations.”
Speaking after the Debate, Mr Isherwood said:
“It is gravely disappointing that Labour voted against every measure I proposed to share real power with people and communities across Wales, as they did in Stage two proceedings of the Bill.
“As I have previously said, Labour’s stance on this reinforces the need for the ‘Devolution Revolution’ promised by Welsh Conservatives after 22 years of regressive rule by Labour in Wales.”
