Wales

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 4 Tachwedd 1965.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Mr James Griffiths Mr James Griffiths , Llanelli 12:00, 4 Tachwedd 1965

I had intended to say something about that, but I thought that was taking up too much time. Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman is not au fait with what I have done in this field. My predecessor had promised a White Paper. I took another view about it. I made a new approach. The reason is that since 1945 we have had two major reports on local government reorganisation in Wales and both ended up in the wastepaper basket, including the one presented to the right hon. Member for Leeds, North-East (Sir K. Joseph). So I made up my mind that it was time for a new approach.

I decided to set up a working party, and invited the local authority organisations to send representatives to a meeting, and I also invited them to appoint informal representatives of local authorities to sit with the working party and examine the problem in the hope that we should be able to arrive at some proposal which would meet with general approval. The working party is engaged on the work now, and the local authorities are co-operating. When the work is done, I shall be presenting proposals to the House. I am sorry that I did not deal with the matter earlier. I thought it would help if I informed the right hon. Gentleman about the position now.