Two parish authorities in the south of the island could be set to merge.

Rushen are in advanced talks with Arbory in relation to a possible merger, confirmed Phil Gawne, who is clerk to both authorities.

This would create the second largest local authority in the south of the island, if it went ahead.

Mr Gawne believes substantial savings could be made from the further reform of the local government system - but says questions should be asked about why some larger local authorities have such high expenditure.

His comments came as Tynwald was asked to back a plan to expand Port Erin’s boundaries to include all the Ballakilley estate and the 78 homes on the Rushen side.

That motion by the Department of Infrastructure, which follows a public inquiry, has now been withdrawn after Rushen applied for a tit-for-tat boundary extension to include the 90 Ballakilley homes on the Port Erin side.

Mr Gawne said: ’Substantial savings could be made across the Manx local government system, but there seems to be little desire to question the very high expenditure of the larger local authorities.

’Instead there appears to be a mistaken belief that knocking the smaller more cost-effective authorities will in some way provide a better outcome for the Manx people.

’Rushen Parish Commissioners disagree with this lazy belief and intend to fight hard in the interests of all ratepayers to highlight the extravagant expenditure of their larger neighbour.’

If Tynwald ultimately approves the boundary extension at Ballakilley that went to the public inquiry, 78 homes currently in the district of Rushen will become part of Port Erin from April 2020. It will mean their rates will increase by an average of almost £250 over 10 years and Rushen could lose up to 10% of its rates income.

But Mr Gawne pointed out that the administration costs of Port Erin at £249,676 are twelve and a half times greater than those of Rushen and yet the population of Port Erin is only twice that of Rushen.

The impact of the boundary extension on local authority income was not part of the remit of the public inquiry.

Mr Gawne said if Arbory and Rushen were to merge, the new combined parish authority would provide equivalent services to those provided by other authorities but much less expensively.

He said: 'Both parishes are concerned that the generally accepted future model of fewer authorities covering much larger areas fails to recognise that the larger authorities we currently have, provide equivalent services at a much greater cost.

'Rushen accepts the argument that the Isle of Man is too small to have an additional bloated layer of large government at a local level, and suggests that the much cheaper model of service delivery adopted by the parishes offers a far better way forward.’

Mr Gawne said Rushen and Arbory epitomise the ’smaller, smarter government’ mantra in that they decided on policy, provide services through contracts and then check to make sure the services are delivered to the required standard.

He said: ’We recognise that the ratepayers fund the services we provide and we choose not to be profligate with their money.

’That said, in recent years both authorities have at low cost, voluntarily taken on additional maintenance work which had been central government’s responsibility but had not been adequately attended to by them.’

Responding to Mr Gawne's comments about Port Erin's administrative costs, clerk to Port Erin Commissioners Jason Roberts said the authority is set up and operates very differently from Rushen so it is not necessarily that easy to compare on a like for like basis.

Pointing out some of the key differences, he noted:

*'Port Erin has around £28m of fixed assets whereas Rushen has £535k

*Port Erin operates a public office which provides a number of other public services as well as a library whereas Rushen operates from a home office

*Port Erin operates 215 public sector housing whereas Rushen operates four with the DoI managing the remainder within its district

*Port Erin handles rate and housing income of around £2m pa whereas Rushen handles income of around £200k pa

*Port Erin employs 14 members of staff, and as a village district is part of the IOM Local Government Pension Scheme and also opted to pay the Isle of Man Living Wage.

*Rushen Parish Commissioners employs its clerk on a part-time basis and, Mr Roberts understands, is not part of the IOM LG Pension Scheme.