Richard Ronan MHK hears of the efficiencies of 'smaller' authorities. Member with responsibility for local Authorities, Mr Ronan MHK, met with Members of the three Commissions in Garff during March. The Commissioners of Laxey, Lonan and Maughold assembled in Laxey to hear Mr Ronan outline his views on the future of local government on the Isle of Man. Mr Ronan said that the aim was to restructure and reorganise local authorities with a view to making them more efficient. In other forums however Mr Bell and Mr Cretney have spoken of amalgamation of 'smaller' authorities into the town authorities. The implication of their words is that the number of authorities will be reduced to produce the often elusive 'economies of scale'. Actual analysis of the efficiencies of the town versus rural authorities can lead to some interesting figures, which were pointed out to Mr Ronan. He was advised that an investigation into the costs per head of Maughold's refuse collection service indicated that Maughold residents were charged almost half for their service in comparison to residents in some of the town authorities.  Another example of rural efficiency is expressed in the comparison between  the number of employees of one southern town authority (population just above 3,000) which has 15 full-time staff employed in non-office duties, with  the Joint Garff authorities (Laxey, Lonan and Maughold - population 4,331) which has one member of non-office staff and  the equivalent of 2 full-time office staff. (In Garff many services are fulfilled through the use of contractors.)
The Commissioners seek the views of ratepayers on the quality and efficiency of the services it provides. Comments on the government Ministers proposals to change the structure of local authorities through amalgamation with the town authorities would also be welcomed. Contact the clerk on maughold@manx.net or on 422148.  ¶ 13:25