Plans that could see Wales's 22 councils merged to as few as ten have been firmly rejected by the Leader of Neath Port Talbot Council.

Councillor Rob Jones had this message for the authors of a Welsh Government green paper which suggested the changes: “Hands off Neath Port Talbot”.

The Council Leader was speaking during a special meeting of Neath Port Talbot Council on Wednesday, May 30th which agreed to send a letter of rejection to the Welsh Government over its local government re-organisation plans.

The Welsh Government Green Paper consultation set out proposals for “larger, stronger” Welsh councils.

It gave possible options on how this could achieved – from voluntary mergers, to a phased approach with early adopters merging first, followed by other authorities, to a comprehensive merger programme reducing Welsh councils to as few as ten.

But Mr Jones said: “As a sovereign council we continue to deliver so I say ‘Hands off’ - Neath Port Talbot does OK thank you very much.”

The Council’s letter to the Welsh Government, signed by Council Leader Cllr Jones said: “The Green Paper is particularly weak in terms of the evidence that larger councils are necessarily better/stronger.

“Indeed in Northamptonshire, it has been proposed to split the all but bankrupt local authority into two smaller councils and the largest council in the UK, Birmingham, has a history of major problems on service delivery.”

The letter says however because of funding issues, there may in the future be a need for mergers.

It reads: “As things stand today, we do not believe there’s a compelling case for this Council to immediately merge with the City and County of Swansea (or anyone else).

“Without blowing our own trumpet or underestimating the challenges ahead, our budget is structurally sound - despite cutting some £77m since 2011 - and we continue to receive favourable reports from the Wales Audit Office, more recently Estyn and other regulators on the quality of the services we provide.

“However, there are no guarantees this will remain the case as we must find another estimated £58m over the next four years from 1 April 2019. It would therefore be foolish to rule out mergers indefinitely - particularly as there are no credible alternatives on the table - and the imperative to merge may already exist elsewhere.

“Perhaps it would therefore be more achievable/realistic to instigate a reorganisation of 22 councils to, say, 15 or 16 rather than down to 10 in one go?”