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قمة الشرق الأوسط للغاز البترولي المسال 2025: منصة عالمية للابتكار في قطاع الطاقة

أعلنت الرابطة العالمية للغاز المسال (WLGA) عن تفاصيل قمة ومعرض الشرق الأوسط للغاز البترولي المسال 2025، المقرر انعقادهما خلال الفترة من 10 إلى 11 نوفمبر 2025 في مركز عُمان للمؤتمرات والمعارض بالعاصمة مسقط.ويُتوقّع أن يستقطب الحدث أكثر من 2000 مشارك من مختلف أنحاء العالم، إلى جانب معرض دولي يضم أكثر من 80 شركة رائدة في قطاع الطاقة. أكبر تجمع متخصص للغاز البترولي المسال في الشرق الأوسط يقام الحدث…

#قمة الغاز البترولي المسال #قطاع الغاز #مؤتمر عمان للطاقة #معرض الشرق الأوسط للغاز #WLGA #الابتكار في الطاقة #الطاقة المستدامة #الطاقة النظيفة #تمكين المرأة #عمان

Lovely to catch up with Ian Westley Chief Executive for Pembrokeshire County Council today. Covered various issues pertaining to the Castle Ward and future communication developments. #Councillor #councillorlife #pembrogeshirecountycouncil #wlga #urbanfoundry (at Haverfordwest) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9CXTlWjBtJ/?igshid=x9awxdlim5mc

#councillor #councillorlife #pembrogeshirecountycouncil #wlga #urbanfoundry

Lovely to catch up with Ian Westley Chief Executive for Pembrokeshire County Council today. Covered various issues pertaining to the Castle Ward and future communication developments. #Councillor #councillorlife #pembrogeshirecountycouncil #wlga #urbanfoundary (at Haverfordwest) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9CStkVDZ5d/?igshid=qxksdb1nidid

#councillor #councillorlife #pembrogeshirecountycouncil #wlga #urbanfoundary

Our thoughts on the Welsh Local Government Association’s discussion paper: An Alternative Approach to the Williams Report.

The Creation of Four Combined Authorities for Wales?

I really welcome this piece of work as an important part of the on-going White Paper consultation. There is much within the WLGA’s discussion paper that adds to the debate and is, in my view, worthy of serious evaluation and consideration.

As I read the paper, I found myself agreeing with many of the arguments and propositions within. Such as:

the pressing need for a coherent vision

form should follow function not the other way around;

the need for greater collaboration;

the case for localism; and

the plain truth that “traditional and superficial” merger/boundary changes would be both damaging and inadequate.

I think the WLGA definitely has something here in the Combined Regions concept but, this paper for me at least, is weakened, not by what is says …but rather by what it doesn’t say. For instance, where is the laser-like focus on addressing the Citizen and Community outcomes that are under immense pressure right now! Four years of sustained fiscal pressure has already happened adversely resulting in 12,000 Jobs lost, services being cut, programmes delayed, and the burden of increased taxation upon hard-pressed families. There doesn’t seem to be any sense of the case for “urgency of action” and, as far as we’re concerned, there simply must be! Another 3-4 years of debate, deliberation and positioning will be devastating for our communities!

Even accepting the status of this work as a “discussion paper” I’m left wanting more detail and wanting answers to some pretty fundamental and blindingly-obvious questions like:

Q: “How will 26 organisations be more sustainable for Wales when we can’t sustain 22 now?”

Q: “Where is the cost benefit analysis?” and, most importantly of all,

Q: “Why aren’t the massive adverse impacts of inertia and delayed reform (the opportunity cost) being taken into account?”

The case studies cited in the paper are useful and interesting but they need further interrogation. For instance, in the case of the Sheffield Combined Authority, our understanding is that it hasn’t been specifically established to generate significant efficiency savings and/or increased Council productivity per se. Its principal aims are to try to deliver a bigger bang for the buck in terms of some functions like economic development and, crucially, to act as an “enabler for additional devolved functions” in the future. Both are of course perfectly reasonable objectives. However, that leads us to question if (as the discussion paper suggests), we are looking at the removal by 2018 of £877million from local government budgets…, Where are the savings going to come from under this alternative proposal?

The Sheffield Combined Authority investment case has as its starting proposition that it should be cost neutral. Some operational savings may indeed follow, but to be clear, it was not established with the specific aim of generating massive efficiency savings in the way participating Councils run their operations. My point is that, we need to be very careful here, that we aren’t confusing apples with pears!

For clarity, let me say that I am a longstanding supporter of the case for City Regions and of the case for brigading functions such as economic development and transport to enable the leveraging of precious resources with the aim of achieving significantly improved beneficial outcomes for our communities. (Incidentally, I think there are a number of other Council functions that may be better handled at a regional level) However, creating two City Regions or indeed four additional Regional Combined Authorities (RCAs) in addition to retaining 22 Unitary Authorities makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

If however, the creation of two City Regions (or indeed as the WLGA propose, four RCAs) were accompanied by rationalisation of the 22 UAs to around 11/12 through voluntary merger (or “Unification” as we prefer to describe it) then we can see the opportunity emerging for the creation of a truly sustainable, inclusive, “localised” service delivery blueprint for Wales.

I guess though what I am most concerned about, is the passage of time and the lack of urgency in making any decisive progress whatsoever. As the debate rages on about numbers, structures, configurations, boundaries, and dare I say it, politics, we are failing to take advantage of efficiencies that are plainly there for everyone to see. It is our communities that will suffer as a consequence of further significant delay. At the forefront of everyone’s attention must be the enormity of the fiscal and service-demand pressures ahead. These two devastatingly powerful forces for change can only be tackled by decisive action and through the creation of an entirely new value proposition.

That is why any proposals to develop RCAs in Wales (and incidentally we think they should be considered), must be much more than merely “cost neutral” and should overtly increase productivity and lead to direct and demonstrable efficiency savings in the constituent Councils. This is where the WLGA paper is, disappointingly, at its weakest – it fails to cite the hard numbers required (NET £££s saved) to persuade anyone that 4 plus 22 can be economically viable and affordable.

Finally, the associated and quite frankly essential rationalisation of existing UAs must not just be about merging structures and boundary changes – this too, must also involve a fundamental supply-side redesign of service delivery models leading to substantial operational efficiencies, enhanced service delivery and substantially beneficial outcomes for our communities.

To sum up and to make our position clear:

We want to see urgency of Action;

We want to see a quest for Excellence;

We want much more detailed Option Appraisal work to be done;

We want much greater participation of Councils in shaping the Vision and Strategic Direction;

We want adjacent Councils to start to explore unification through voluntary merger NOW in the interests of their communities; and

In terms of the William’s Commission Report and the WLGA’s Discussion Paper contributions, we don’t see this as being an either/or scenario……. We believe the future involves the best of both!

#WLGA #Welsh Local Government Association #Williams Report