Conwy Valley community councils victory over merger

Oct 30 2008 by Samantha Castle, North Wales Weekly News

THE people of Trefriw and Dolgarrog are breathing a sigh of relief this week after the Local Government Boundaries Commission for Wales recommended against a merger of their two community councils.

Over 70 people attended a public meeting last Wednesday to hear Susan Smith, chairman of the Commission, after it emerged the councils may have to merge due to a lack of councillors.

She informed the meeting why the amalgamation had been put forward and confirmed the Commission was now prepared to revise their proposal because both councils now had enough members.

“Obviously the audience was pleased to hear the Commission would be dropping the plan to combine the two councils into one,” said county councillor Emlyn Thomas.

“I arranged for the meeting because of the consternation felt by both communities when the proposal to merge was first published. The Commission was impressed by my letter reporting that circumstances had changed dramatically in both villages.

“The Commission representative was impressed by the enthusiasm of the audience and the many people who had turned up to express their views,” he added.

Dolgarrog councillor Rita Jones said the chairman of the Commission could see how everyone at the meeting felt: “We went there to present our case, armed with a petition opposing the merger and with over 30 letters from residents, together with the views taken from our public meeting in October.

“She will now put her findings to the next Commission meeting at the end of November and we will have the final result sometime in the spring,” said Cllr Jones.