THE NORTHERN Ireland Executive has agreed on a compromise proposal to create 11 "super-councils" by 2011, setting in motion the biggest shake-up in local administration since the 1970s.
Environment Minister Arlene Foster presented the plan to the Cabinet who, with the exception of Ulster Unionists Sir Reg Empey and Michael McGimpsey, voted in favour of the motion yesterday.
The 11 proposed super-councils will replace the current 26-council system, which a 2005 Review of Public Administration recommended be reduced to just seven.
Sinn Féin supported that plan but the other main parties said the councils would be too big to preserve local identity and suggested a 15-council model.
It was also feared that system would amount to a "repartition of the North", with councils in the east dominated by unionists and the reverse situation in the west.
Under the new system the number of councillors will drop from 562 to 460, and could result in as many as 3,500 job losses.
The Boundary Commission will decide the exact size and shape of each district, and all councils will have safeguards for minorities.
The proposal has been hailed as a significant breakthrough, showing that the DUP and Sinn Féin can work together - something that has seemed increasingly problematic over the last week, with the DUP vetoing the plan to transfer policing and justice powers while boasting of having "binned" the Irish Language Act.
Sinn Féin MLA John O'Dowd pointed to the plan as evidence of the Assembly's stability. "There have been those who have claimed that the Executive was deadlocked," Mr O'Dowd said. "Once again the durability of these institutions and the willingness of all the other parties to reach common positions has proven them wrong."
"This number of local government districts will allow new council areas to deliver important services to communities in an efficient and effective manner," Ms Foster said. "These include aspects of planning, as well as rural development, the public realm aspects of local roads functions, urban regeneration and community development, a range of housing related functions and local economic development and tourism."
However, the UUP's Fred Cobain claimed the plan would "turn Belfast into a nationalist-dominated city".
"What the Provos couldn't do in 30 years with bombs and bullets they will do with a stroke of a pen, and that is turning Belfast green," he said. "Belfast is a unionist city and Arlene Foster will turn it from a unionist into a republican and nationalist city. She should be ashamed of herself."
Alliance leader David Ford was also highly critical of the decision, describing it as "a tribal carve-up", and saying the Executive had "squandered their big chance to make local government work more effectively for everyone".
"This deal is a DUP/Sinn Féin carve-up. If they are not indulging in chuckling, they are taking part in choreographed sham fights. They would be better off making tough but necessary decisions, instead of producing endless quantities of fudge."