Call for probe into the running of Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority

Martin Shipton

A former Welsh Government-appointed board member of the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority has called on a Senedd committee to investigate what he sees as serious shortcomings in the body’s performance.

Christopher Coppock wants the soon-to-be-appointed Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee to examine what he believes to have been the ineffective use of public funds by the authority.

Mr Coppock resigned from the authority’s board in 2022 because he did not believe it was being led in a way that would deliver its statutory purposes.

Last month Nation.Cymru reported how he had expressed disbelief at the appointment of the park authority’s chief executive Catherine Mealing-Jones as the new Auditor General for Wales. She is due to take up her new role in July.

In 2021 Audit Wales produced a report recommending the need for the park authority to “drive forward the change programme, strengthen governance and decision-making.”

Recently Gareth Lucey, Audit Wales’ Audit Director, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “At this stage we do not think it is necessary or helpful to revisit the specific actions taken in response to the statutory recommendations of 2021 and recognise that the authority has completed the actions it intended to undertake in response.”

Mr Coppock told Nation.Cymru: “It’s an interesting use of words. Mr Lucey does not say that the authority successfully carried out the statutory recommendations, although he goes on to state: ‘We therefore now consider these specific statutory recommendations to be concluded.’ In strictly semantic terms, concluding recommendations does not explicitly mean that the recommendations have been fully acted upon. I would have expected wording more like: ‘… the statutory recommendations have been fully (or satisfactorily) delivered and implemented’.

“I say this not out of pedantry. As recently as February 2025, Gary Emery, Director for Local Government at Audit Wales wrote to the CEO of BBNPA and the then Chair, Aled Edwards, making the following stark points:

* We have found that a lack of organisational capacity and resilience presents a significant risk to the future sustainability of the Authority and its ability to deliver the Auditor General’s recommendations;

* For 2023-24, Bannau Brycheiniog’s ratio of usable reserves not restricted by law to its net cost of services was 58%. Both of the other Welsh NPAs have ratios above 130%;

* Organisational capacity and resilience also significantly limit the ability of the Authority to implement change;

* There are significant capacity gaps at many officer levels. This has meant that senior leaders have carried out duties below their grades;

* Lack of organisational capacity has placed significant pressure on officers, impacting on their morale and wellbeing;

* Delivery of many key functions depends on individuals and, when they leave the Authority, those functions may not be replaced due to difficulties with retention and the viability of posts in the Authority’s financial context;

* There is also a lack of clarity in the timescale for implementing the remaining priority actions to respond to our recommendations, despite four years having passed since we issued our recommendations;

* Member attendance to full Authority meetings is 81.7% overall, but significantly lower by council-appointed members (73.8%) compared to Welsh Government-appointed members (97.1%);

* We also heard during our fieldwork that some elected members do not engage effectively with the Authority and its work. This limits the extent to which they can effectively input into decision-making and scrutiny, and risks weakening the effectiveness of governance arrangements;

* The lack of progress and concerns raised pose a significant risk that the Authority does not have proper arrangements in place to secure value for money in its use of resources;

* In conclusion, we believe insufficient progress has been made to provide assurance that the Authority will address the Auditor General’s statutory recommendations.

‘Bankrupt’

Recently the Chair of the park authority, Councillor Gareth Ratcliffe, warned that: “We’ll be bankrupt in three years unless things change.”

Mr Coppock said: “It is fascinating to observe the level of scrutiny by board members in relation to the authority’s precarious situation. The LDRS reported that, at a BBNPA meeting on 27 March 2026, a member asked how the BBNPA’s financial position sat in comparison with other national parks in Wales.

“The Chief Executive’s response was that BBNPA was in a structurally worse position and didn’t have the assets that the other two national parks have. She went on to say: ‘We don’t have the commercial opportunities that the other two do.’

“In terms of scrutiny and due diligence there are obvious follow up questions – which didn’t materialise: Why is BBNPA in a structurally worse position, what assets does it not have, and what are the commercial opportunities the others have that it doesn’t have? To me, this lack of scrutiny, particularly when the Authority is in such a parlous state, is a bewildering example of poor oversight and governance.

“I leave readers to draw their own conclusions and also to reflect generally on the efficacy of the monitoring of public bodies by both the Welsh Government and Audit Wales.”

Incoming members of the Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee will have Mr Coppock’s concerns drawn to their attention.