REVIEW OF PART OF THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN THE CITY AND COUNTY OF CARDIFF AND THE COUNTY BOROUGH OF THE VALE OF GLAMORGAN IN THE AREA OF THE GRANGETOWN LINK ROAD
REPORT AND PROPOSALS
Edwina Hart AM MBE
Minister for Finance, Local Government and Communities
The National Assembly for Wales
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 We, the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales (the Commission), have completed the review of part of the boundary between the City and County of Cardiff and the County Borough of The Vale of Glamorgan in the area of the Grangetown Link Road and present our proposals for a new boundary.
2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2.1 We propose that the boundary between The City and County of Cardiff and the County Borough of The Vale of Glamorgan in the area of the Grangetown Link Road should be realigned in the area under review to follow the centre line of the River Ely.
3. SCOPE AND OBJECT OF THE REVIEW
3.1 Section 54(1) of the Local Government Act 1972 (the Act) provides that the Commission may in consequence of a review conducted by them make proposals to the National Assembly for Wales for effecting changes appearing to the Commission desirable in the interests of effective and convenient local government.
Procedure
3.2 Section 60 of the Act lays down procedural guidelines which are to be followed in carrying out a review. In line with that guidance, we wrote on 27 July 2001 to the The City and County of Cardiff and the County Borough of The Vale of Glamorgan Councils, Michaelston and Llandough Community Councils, the Members of Parliament for the local constituencies, the Assembly Members for the area, the local authority associations, the police authority for the area and political parties to inform them of our intention to conduct the review and to request their views on our initial proposals. We also publicised our intention to conduct the review in local newspapers circulating in the area and asked the councils to display a number of public notices.
Background
3.3 The boundary between the City and County of Cardiff and the County Borough of The Vale of Glamorgan follows, in the main, the River Ely from the A4232 southward to Penarth Head. Part of the river (between Brindley Road and Clip-coch) was diverted when the Grangetown Link Road was built but the border continues to follow the old course of the river. The river was diverted by the ‘County of South Glamorgan (Peripheral Distributor Road: Grangetown Link)(Diversion of River Ely) Order 1982’. It is noted that following the diversion of the River, power existed under Section 73 of the 1972 Act for the Secretary of State to order after consultation with the Commission, that the boundary be adjusted to conform with the new line of the water course, but in 1982 the opportunity to effect such an alteration without a review by the Commission was not taken. South Glamorgan County Council brought this anomaly to the Commission’s attention in 1995. At that time however, we had recently been directed by the Secretary of State for Wales to undertake a programme of electoral arrangements for the new authorities in Wales and it was decided that this work took priority over boundary issues. Having completed the programme of electoral reviews, we have now made resources available to undertake this review.
4. INITIAL PROPOSALS
4.1 We considered that the amount of land contained in the divergence between the watercourse and the boundary was small and that the majority lay under the Grangetown link road. As far as could be ascertained, no residential, industrial or agricultural area is affected. Given the limited scope and effect of changing the boundary in this area, the we decided to forego a Draft Proposals stage of the review and instead made proposals at the initial stage. Our Initial Proposals recommended that the boundary be changed to follow the centre of the new course of the River Ely.
5. SUMMARY OF REPRESENTATIONS RECEIVED IN RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT PROPOSALS
5.1 We received representations from the City and County of Cardiff Council, The Vale of Glamorgan County Borough Council and a resident of Cardiff. All of these representations were considered carefully before formulating our proposals.
5.2The City and County of Cardiff Council supported the Commission’s proposed change to the boundary to follow the centre line of the new course of the River Ely. The Council could not see any difficulties or problems arising from the proposed boundary change in terms of the administration servicing of the area. The Council considered that the proposed boundary change would have no impact upon any current service delivery plans. As far as the Council is aware, there are no special local factors that have influenced the Council’s views. They supported the Commission’s suggestion of foregoing a Draft Proposals stage of the review and progressing directly to a proposal at the initial stage.
5.3 The Vale of Glamorgan County Borough Council had no objection to the Commission’s proposal to change the boundary so that it follows the centre of the new course of the River Ely.
5.4 A resident of Cardiff considered that the Commission should include the area of Penarth Harbour in their review of the boundary between Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. He suggested that Penarth Harbour should be transferred into Cardiff thus bringing the whole Cardiff Bay development area under one local authority.
6. ASSESSMENT
6.1 We have noted that the representations from the two principal councils contain no evidence to suggest that the proposed change would not be in the interests of effective and convenient local government. We consider that the lack of representation from any other interested party suggests that there is general contentment with the proposal.
6.2 We noted the suggestion from a Cardiff resident that the Commission should also consider a change to the boundary to transfer the area of Penarth Harbour in to Cardiff. We are of the view however that this suggestion relates to areas that are outside the scope of this review. This matter would therefore need to be addressed as a separate review. Should interested parties wish to pursue this matter we would ask that they make a formal request to the Commission to undertake a review of this specific area.
7. PROPOSALS
7.1 Having considered all of the evidence available to us we propose that the boundary between The City and County of Cardiff and the County Borough of The Vale of Glamorgan in the area of the Grangetown Link Road should be realigned in the area under review to follow the centre line of the River Ely. The proposed change to the boundary is shown in green on the map at Appendix 1.
7.3 A detailed map to a larger scale showing the proposed new boundary can be inspected at the offices of The City and County of Cardiff Council and The Vale of Glamorgan County Borough Council and at the office of the Commission in Cardiff.
8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
8.1 We wish to express our gratitude to the principal councils for their assistance during the course of the review and to all bodies and persons who made representations to us.
9. RESPONSES TO THIS REPORT
9.1 Having completed our review of part of the boundary between the The City and County of Cardiff and the County Borough of The Vale of Glamorgan in the area of the Grangetown Link Road and submitted our recommendations to the National Assembly for Wales, we have fulfilled our statutory obligation under the directions issued by the National Assembly for Wales.
9.2 It now falls to the National Assembly for Wales, if it thinks fit, to implement them with or without modifications by means of an Order or to direct the Commission to conduct a further review. Such an Order will not be made earlier than a period of six weeks from the date that the Commission’s recommendations are submitted to the National Assembly for Wales.
9.3 Any further representations concerning the matters in the report should be addressed to the National Assembly for Wales. They should be made as soon as possible, and in any event not later than six weeks from the date that the Commission’s recommendations are submitted to the National Assembly for Wales. Representations should be addressed to:
Local Government Modernisation 2 Division National Assembly for Wales Cathays Park Cardiff CF10 3NQMRS S G SMITH LLB (Chair)
J DAVIES (Member)
D H ROBERTS (Member)
E H LEWIS BSc. DPM FRSA FCIPD (Secretary)
January 2002