RPA spend 'a waste of money' - Gillespie

His comment came at last Monday night’s monthly meeting of Ballymena Borough Council as members were brought details by their chief executive, Anne Donaghy, on a recent engagement event on ‘the way forward’ for councils staged by the local government association, NILGA.

The Review of Public Administration (RPA), was mooted some five years ago, with plans for seven new councils but the number increased to 11 in 2009.

However, the formation of Northern Ireland's 11 so-called 'super councils' has since been postponed.

Speaking out at last week’s monthly council meeting, Mr Gillespie said the 9m spent preparing for the changes did “not look well for the people at Stormont” and he queried how much further would be spent on preparations for alternative local government reform.

He was informed by Mrs Donaghy: “As far as Ballymena Borough Council and Ballymena ratepayers are concerned it has cost nothing as we work through funding from central government and that remains the case.

“We will work collaboratively with other councils to deliver services to the public,” said Mrs Donaghy who added: “the work done to date has been very beneficial and has given us a baseline for moving forward.

“The scoping work carried out to date by officers of the three areas (Ballymena, Larne and Carrickfergus) has and is proving very valuable,”she said.