Communities Review

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The Proposals

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A Review of Communities covered by the City & County of Swansea has proposed a reorganisation of Community Councils within Gower.

It is proposed that the four community councils of Penrice, Reynoldston, Port Eynon and Rhossili be disbanded, with the same areas becoming four wards in a new merged community council.

The new community council would have 8 councillors:
Penrice (provisionally called Oxwich) 2, Reynoldston 2, Port Eynon 3, Rhossili 1.

The draft proposals in full are here.

The draft proposed map for South Gower (as thumbnail below) is here.

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What difference could this make to you?

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The PCC has nine councillors to focus on matters specific to our local area or raised by local people. This gives you a choice of councillors to engage with and gives the council a range of voices on each item. With this number of councillors different councillors can contribute in different ways. Local decisions are made locally but if a matter applies further afield there is an opportunity to collaborate with other local community councils or to make representations to the local authority, etc.

Within a merged council the area currently covered by the PCC would be allocated two councillors. The eight councillors of the new merged council would make decisions for the whole area.

Local residents would have to travel greater distances to attend meetings.

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The PCC owns assets and holds funds for the benefit of local people.

The PCC assets include Greens in Horton and Oxwich Green, defibrillators, benches and noticeboards.

The PCC seeks to balance the use of the Greens between everyday use for local recreation and events organised by local people or supported by local people.

With a merger the assets and funds would be transfered to the merged council and decisions on their use would be made by this wider council.

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It is difficult to predict the impact of a merger on local precepts.

Some administrative tasks could be rationalised but some would be more costly. More people are involved with the current community councils and contribute in different ways to reduce costs.

The Review has not considered the assets and ongoing liabilities of each council.

A merger could bring winners and losers across the area.

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Important factors in the Review are effective and convenient local government. Reasons for the proposed merger include increasing uniformity in community councils across the area and sustainability of the councils through a smaller ratio of councillors to the population.

The PCC has found that when there are vacancies local people will come forward to fill them whilst the regulators prefer there to be competition for councillor positions.

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