Radical regional shake-up scrapped

PLANS to redraw France’s regional boundaries that would have unified Normandy and carved up Poitou-Charentes and Picardy between their neighbours have been scrapped.

The idea was part of a law to simplify the different layers of local government in France.

Plans to create new "metropolitan councils" for large cities and their surrounding areas, plus cutting the 6,000 departmental and regional councillors by a half, with one "territorial councillor" sitting on both councils are still under discussion.

The regional redraw plans would also have seen the merger of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments, the joining of the Franche-Comté and Bourgogne regions and the Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes.

It was also proposed that the Loire-Atlantique department should become part of Brittany.