RPA meeting is demanded

Earlier this week the Northern Ireland Executive decided to put back a decision on the future of RPA for two weeks.

Defending the Executive's decision, Mrs Hamilton said that there was no way councils could undertake to pay for new council structures, as it would be tantamount to councillor's paying themselves out of the public purse.

"I cannot imaging that happening. Literally you would be paying your own pension scheme, or paying out any lump sums to yourself or fellow councillors as part of the administration in the change process. I know people who have served on councils for 52 years and under RPA they would be entitled to a payment, but for councils to do that it would look like ourselves paying ourselves.

"We need to have a meeting with the Minister to thrash out the details of this. I know as a member of the National Assembly of Councillors that at their latest meeting they have decided to approach the Minister's office for a meeting and that is what councils need to do as well. We need the Minister to come down and speak to us or we need to send a delegation to meet him, and I would call for an immediate meeting with Minster Poots on this very issue," she said.

MP and Alderman Gregory Campbell said the DUP would prefer if what he called 'boundary issues' were resolved so that all Parties could work towards the creation of the 11-council model, but added that there were "a number of issues that had held that back".

"We hope that the two-week moratorium will allow sufficient time to try and get these issues resolved, so that the 11-council model will proceed. At this stage that is sitting at less than 50/50," he said.

Mr Campbell said if agreement could not be reached then the Minister would look to make savings where councils were working together in areas such as recycling, waste disposal and tourism, to ensure that cost savings could be made where feasible.

"Sinn Fein may say we are delaying this, but we have to try and ensure that the final agreement is suitable to everyone in local government and not simply an agreement that Sinn Fein thinks is suitable.

Concentrate minds

"We are talking about 26 different council areas that need to move towards an 11-council model. Hopefully these two weeks will allow sufficient time to concentrate minds to get a satisfactory resolution. We have a deadline of May next year for council elections and we need to know by then if it is 26 councils or 11 councils," he said.

Meanwhile, SDLP local government reform spokesperson Helen Quigley said the "eleventh hour attempt" by Minister Poots to get ratepayers to pay for new council structures would not inspire confidence.

"We have had elaborate committee structures on costs and potential savings for restructuring local government, and we had a Pricewaterhouse Coopers report promising long-term savings which may viewed as optimistic.

"Now, at the eleventh hour, Edwin Poots is suddenly telling us that the Executive can't meet the cost of restructuring councils. So he wants the councils, which really means the ratepayers, to pay the 118 million up-front cost. Not only that, he wants councils and councillors to make their views known to him in time for an Executive meeting on June 10.

"Why on earth was this not budgeted for over all those years? Why was it not included in the three-year budget presented in 2008? The implications for ratepayers are massive but the time scale does not allow for proper consideration by 26 separate full council meetings. This looks very much like a desperation measure which will hardly create confidence in the Minister's ability to guide local government reform to a successful conclusion."

Sinn Fin's Foyle MLA, Raymond McCartney, has blamed the Unionist bloc for the delays, saying: "We are opposed to the duplication of administration and we want to see the savings that will flow from the reduction to 11 councils take place immediately.

"The confused position from Unionism on this matter is causing deep concern amongst the wider community.There is no justification for 26 local Councils in the context of a functioning Assembly and Executive. Significant work has been done to prepare for the RPA implementation over the past few years. This work has impacted on almost every area of the public sector," he said, adding: "What we need is a decision to move ahead on the 11 council model. We need to proceed to elections early next year to the new Council configuration."