Madam,

You published a letter recently from Chris Samuel opposing the proposal, apparently strongly endorsed by Elin Jones, to increase the number of AMs in the Assembly.

The proposal was put forward by a supposedly impartial expert panel, which consisted mainly, if not exclusively, of academics in university departments of politics. As such, they are biased. Are they likely to say that politics is not important and we need fewer politicians when politics is their bread and butter?

The expert panel have made comparisons between administrations in Scotland and Northern Ireland and say, on this basis, that Wales needs more Assembly Members. Perhaps the converse is true - Northern Ireland and Scotland have too many members in their administrations.

AMs have to sit on more committees than their counterparts. One AM has said that having fewer AMs on each committee and reducing the frequency with which these committees meet would solve this problem.

An argument is made that the additional costs for 30 more AMs would be £12.9m in the first year which would be only 0.08 per cent of the Welsh Block Grant and thus palls into insignificance. My council tax is 0.0000167 per cent of the Welsh Block Grant. As it is such a small percentage will the expert panel defend me in court if I decide not to pay it?

I think most voters would prefer to have their bins emptied more frequently than have more AMs in Cardiff. You can empty a lot of bins for £12.9m. The Assembly could make this happen by passing down more money to county councils.

Westminster is proposing to cut the number of MPs from 650 to 600. Why is Wales proposing to go against this trend?

In 2015 the Assembly proposed to cut the number of Welsh county councils from 22 to single figures. They are still talking about it two and a half years later. A good deal of AM time might be saved if they scrapped the policy if they are unable to implement it.

In the 2016 Welsh Assembly election the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party received 4.4 per cent of the popular vote, with 44,286 regional votes. There is thus a significant proportion of the electorate who would not only oppose an increase in the number of AMs but would like to see them reduced to zero.

Yours etc,

David Kirby. Cae Melyn, Aberystwyth.

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