Council to pay residents to help shape future of local services

Selected residents are to be paid to give their view on a how a council overhauls its approach to delivering and supporting services. 

Residents will be asked to take part in a Citizens Assembly to consider the changes proposed to how their council works which is intended as a response to greater demand, tightening budgets and a loss of confidence in public bodies. 

Torfaen Borough Council has said it intends changing how it operates, and the way it works with voluntary and community groups and charities, as part of what it is calling ‘The Deal’ and based on a plan developed by Wigan council. 

Discussions 

The Labour run council is discussing the proposals with councillors and other public bodies, local town and community councils, local groups and its own staff during October before it starts asking the wider public for their views. 

It intends starting to make changes to how it operates such as devolving budgets, and decision making processes, so community groups can decide how and where money, beginning in the 2026/27 financial year. 

But it will also use a Citizens Assembly, planned for January, as part of its process in agreeing what the public wants from The Deal and how services could be provided or supported. 

The plans were presented to a council scrutiny committee where Labour member for Cwmbran Two Locks ward Colette Thomas asked how the proposed Citizens Assembly would be set up and how the council would ensure all areas and ages of Torfaen are represented. 

Representatives

Neil Jones, the authority’s public relations manager, said it will use the Sortition Foundation which organises assemblies. 

It is intended to have 40 representatives on the assembly for Torfaen, while Blaenau Gwent that shares a chief executive and some senior officers with the Pontypool-based authority under a federation model, will also have 40 on its assembly. 

Mr Jones said: “A company Sortition will be engaged to find those people from a broad cross section of people and that group will be found independently, we don’t source the assembly, and they are paid for contributing their hours and will feed in good, in depth research and test how our deal is shaping up.”