The Welsh first minister has admitted the reorganisation map for local government was not going to be implemented.
Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, Carwyn Jones conceded his administration may go back to the drawing board over local government reorganisation.
He said the map published last year to cut the number of councils in Wales from 22 to eight or nine was ‘clearly not going to proceed’.
‘What I’d like to be able to do is begin discussions with the other parties, see what other common ground there is and move to a situation where there is stronger local government,’ said Mr Jones.
‘I think it’s important that we sit down and work out how to get to that point.’
The politician who had been in charge of local government reorganisation in Wales, Labour’s Leighton Andrews, lost his seat on the Welsh Assembly in a shock result earlier this month.