The County Councils in both North and South Trøndelag have decided to apply to Parliament to be allowed to merge into one joint county under the name Trøndelag.
The decisions were done in a symbolic manner through two parallel county votes at historical Stiklestad.
The two Trøndelag counties will thus carry out the first county merger in modern times , and be the first in the course of the process by which the government wants to replace the current 19 counties with ten regions. The new Trøndelag will become a joint region from 1 January 2018.
– Multiple tasks
In the two county elections the word “historical” was banded around loosely, but the debates around merging was also marked by pride in leading the regionalisation process.
– Wewill go ahead with this positive decision. We believe that Trondelag is managed best from Trøndelag. Therefore, we also expect new tasks to be transferred to the merged Trøndelag, said County Mayor Tore O. Sandvik in Sor-Trondelag, with a clear message to the government at the start of their historical debate.
There will be no referendum on the County merger.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
