Councillor slams ‘behind closed doors’ funding meeting

Richard Evans, Local Democracy Reporter

A councillor has accused a north Wales council of treating the public with ‘contempt’ for holding a meeting about funding public facilities behind closed doors.

Old Colwyn county councillor David Carr is not happy that Conwy County Council has arranged for Bay of Colwyn Town Council members to attend an “extraordinary town council meeting” via Zoom tonight.

Councillor Carr is also unhappy that the public and press are to be excluded from the meeting due to its “confidential nature”.

The county council’s head of economy and culture Sarah Ecob is believed to be talking to councillors about what “funding streams” are available to pay for public facilities.

‘Unhappy development’

In a letter to both Colwyn Bay Town Council and Conwy County Council, Cllr David Carr slammed the decision to hold the unscheduled meeting in secrecy, giving councillors just five days’ notice.

He said: “This is an unhappy development for our long-suffering residents, the Bay of Colwyn Town Council being asked yet again to take on county council responsibilities.”

Cllr Carr said: “This proposed meeting taking place with the press and public being excluded shows not just a lack of democracy but shows contempt for our residents.

“Colwyn Bay Town Council taking on County Council services has a lack of legal authority and the potential for service failure, (and the) increased cost for residents with the precept going up , and a departure from this council’s core community focus.”

Resources

He added: “This town council has a significantly smaller budget than the county council and fewer resources, making it difficult to fund the never-ending requests from the county council.

“We pay £68,000 to Theatr Colwyn. We are paying for the paddling pool in Rhos. We are committed to funding the county council toilets within the town council’s boundaries. These current commitments are already going to cost in the hundreds of thousands of pounds and will lead to large increases in the precept year on year.

“This is something that residents should know about. Not only are they going to be paying large council tax increases, but they are also going to be paying significantly more to the town council too; excluding them from this meeting, excluding the press from this meeting, doing this behind closed doors is undemocratic (and) most certainly a breach of the Nolan principles we should all abide by in our public lives.”

Colwyn Bay Town Council said an urgent meeting had been arranged following a request by Conwy County Council and that the public and press were to be excluded, due to the confidential nature of the meeting.

Conwy County Council was contacted for a comment.