Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan has spoken out against a Beecham inquiry recommendation, just one week after the report emerged. Mr Morgan, who had commissioned the review into Welsh councils, criticised suggestions by its chairman, LGA Labour leader Sir Jeremy Beecham, that the assembly government should ‘lead’ the delivery process for the future of local authorities. He told a Swansea conference dealing with the inquiry’s findings that ‘there are dangers in this recommendation’, and he was opposed to Cardiff attempting to take over or micro-manage local service delivery. Only occasionally, said the first minister, should the centre have to rely on its authority to require changes. Mr Morgan said the report’s vision of ‘small country governance’ provided ‘the opportunity to shape our public services through networks of relationships that take advantage of our small scale’. Sir Jeremy’s review (The MJ, 13 July) said the assembly government should move away from the ‘traditional, detached central government role of issuing strategies, regulations and targets to far more engaged leadership of the delivery process’
