Council leader defends £1m communications spending after Senedd criticism

The leader of a south Wales council has defended its expenditure on communications after it came under fire from a Senedd member.

Conservative MS Tom Giffard called for an immediate freeze on what he called “back office” spending by Swansea Council after finding out it spent nearly £1 million on communications in three years. Rob Stewart, leader of the Labour-run authority, said Mr Giffard’s “search for relevance” continued.

Mr Giffard, a South Wales West MS since 2021, submitted a Freedom of Information request to the council which revealed that £989,850 was spent on communications, media, public relations and marketing in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25, with £972,758 of that sum paying the salaries of six staff.

Mr Giffard said this came at a time when council tax went up, savings of millions of pounds had to be made, and families were struggling.

“Labour’s priorities are completely wrong,” said Mr Giffard. “If the council can find over £340,000 for communications in a single year, residents shouldn’t be dealing with pothole-ridden roads or the highest number of missed bin collections of any local authority in Wales. That money belongs on the frontline, not on managing the council’s public image.”

Last autumn it emerged that Swansea Council had missed 29,894 bin collections in 2024, the highest number in Wales although there was no data for Bridgend Council.

Mr Giffard said the public relations budget should be frozen and savings allocated to street cleaning, roads and schools.

Cllr Stewart hit back, saying: “Tom Giffard’s search for relevance and purpose continues. His feckless attempts to try and generate headlines by attacking hard-working public servants is deplorable and unbelievably crass.”

He said all councils had a responsibility to keep residents informed about services that impacted their lives, and that a cost-of-living campaign by the authority in December was viewed more than 375,000 times. In his view Mr Giffard “hates that this Labour-run council is delivering”.

Cllr Stewart also said he was yet to see Mr Giffard “deliver anything of note” despite claiming nearly £800,000 in salary and allowances.

Swansea Council’s total expenditure on day-to-day services in 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 was just over £3.1 billion. It means the £989,850 communications bill during this period represented 0.03% of overall expenditure.