Council’s new chamber translation partly inaudible to listeners

Richard Evans Local Democracy Reporter

A cabinet member congratulated Conwy Council on its “high standards” of Welsh translation at the council’s new Colwyn Bay chamber, seemingly unaware parts of his speech were inaudible due to bugs in the translation system.

A finance scrutiny committee met on Monday for the first time at Conwy’s flagship Coed Pella building, after councillors met for the final time on Friday after 30 years in the Grade-II listed Bodlondeb.

The council explained last week that it had “been working with an outdated system at Bodlondeb for a number of years” after a livestream of a meeting was delayed on Friday.

To save funds, Conwy opted to move to the state-of-the-art £58m Coed Pella building, after spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on the move and kitting out the new chamber.

‘Isn’t it ironic…’

At the meeting, the Welsh language standards annual report was introduced by Cllr Dilwyn Roberts, the cabinet member for culture and leisure.

But ironically, speaking in Welsh, Cllr Roberts congratulated the council on a “high standard” of Welsh translation in the new chamber, seemingly unaware that those listening to the English translator online couldn’t understand parts of his address.

Whilst English speaking speakers could be heard clearly, when some Welsh speakers took to the mic, the translation equipment amplified other conversations going on in the room.

The stream constantly buzzed, crackled, and popped, leaving listeners straining their ears and unable to hear parts of the dialogue.

“I’m really proud of (inaudible), but first (inaudible) the main chamber (inaudible). Historic day here today, and additionally, I’m glad as well I have a report for you that is very important for this scrutiny meeting (barely audible) morning,” said Cllr Roberts.

“As you know – we’ve all read the report – it says it is to do with (inaudible). We have to do this according to the Welsh language standards, and it is nice to hear the high standard of translation coming through in here today, and that everything has been done easily. So (inaudible) this committee will see like I do that this is a very positive report, and the support has been amazing.”

He added: “For this report to be positive, it has taken a lot of support from councillors and staff at the same time, and whatever your first language, there is good support for bilingualism in this council, and I’m very proud of that.”

Cllr Roberts continued to introduce the report in Welsh, which continued to pop and buzz with interference.

Once Cllr Roberts had finished, council officers also presented the report, with parts of their speech being similarly difficult to hear to varying degrees, due to the translation picking up other conversations and more interference.

New system

At another point, later in the same meeting, Cllr David Carr was complaining about the council not cutting non-essential services and the bin and recycling collections, only for his voice to repeatedly cut out.

Earlier this month, the authority said it needed a new modern council chamber as Bodlondeb was outdated.

Consequently, the new Coed Pella meeting room had been equipped with new improved “microphones, headsets for simultaneous translation facilities, cameras, display screens, and audio enhancement and hard-of-hearing support”.

The council said it spent £700K on the cost of bringing all functions into Coed Pella and reconfiguring the space to accommodate the new council chamber, democratic hub, and other services.

The purpose of the report was to show how the council has conformed with the Welsh Standards during 2024-2025, a statutory requirement.

The committee approved the report, which will now go to cabinet for further debate.

A spokeswoman for Conwy County Council commented: “This was the first committee meeting from the council chamber in Coed Pella, so we’re aware that some small refinements to the new systems may be necessary. It must be remembered that adapting to a new system takes time for everyone.”