AM Calls for Community Council Improvements

Plaid AM says Government must look at all options

Plaid Cymru AM for South Wales West, Dr Dai Lloyd has responded to the Wales Audit Office’s Report on Town and Community Councils. The Wales Audit Office has stated that the financial management is “disappointing at too many Town and Community Councils”.

There are over 730 Town and Community Councils across Wales and according to figures from the Wales Audit Office 340 Town and Community Councils have been issued with “qualified audit opinions” which means that there is improvement needed in the way that their accounts are managed, this is double the number from the previous year. Dr Lloyd, Plaid Cymru’s Local Government spokesperson stated;

“The Wales Audit Office report confirms that serious improvements are needed within the Town and Community Council sector in Wales.

“However, this shouldn’t come as a huge surprise – we have heard of concerns over a number of years of lack of governance, bullying and of community councils being dis-banded. The Welsh Government have known of these issues for quite some time.

“The recent report by the Independent Review Panel on Community and Town Councils which reported in October 2018 shows that there are options available to the Welsh Government in terms of trying to reform the sector. It is vitally important that the Welsh Government now get on with that task and get a grip on the sector.

“The Welsh Government needs to take action to ensure that improvements are made and that the closest tier of democracy to the people is put on a sustainable footing going forward.”