Questions raised about £400,000 profits from landfill site

Anthony Lewis, Local democracy reporter

There have been questions about where more than £400,000 in council profits from a landfill site will be spent.

Merthyr Tydfil Council has a profit sharing agreement with Biffa Waste Services in relation to Biffa’s operation at the Trecatti Landfill Site.

Under that agreement, the council is entitled to a percentage share of the operation’s adjusted annual operating cashflows when this is positive.

Biffa Waste Services has told the council that for the financial year ending March 31, 2025, the council’s contribution comes to £492,067.79.

The last decision on these funds by full council was made relating to the financial year ending March 31, 2016.

Since then, negative adjusted annual operating cashflows have been reported and therefore no profit was available for distribution.

The full council report said it was for councillors to consider how best to use the percentage share of the operation’s adjusted annual operating cashflows from Biffa for 2024/25.

The council administration’s proposal is that £5,000 be allocated to each of the 11 electoral wards, a further £10,000 to the Dowlais and Pant electoral ward for inconvenience suffered and that £427,067.79 be retained centrally to mitigate against loss of Shared Prosperity Funding (SPF).

But Councillor Lisa Mytton, Independent, said previous reports had the devil in the detail and people knew what they were voting on.

She said when they had those reports in front of them they knew where those funds were being allocated because those reports were detailed and specific.

She mentioned the acronym SMART, which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound, adding that they’d had two reports come to council now which were “not transparent, not open, not clear and absolutely not smart.”

Cllr Mytton said they hadn’t had the Trecatti funds for 10 years, adding: “We all want to support wherever we can with SPF but we need that detail.

“And we all want to do whatever we can to support our communities.”

She said it was short-sighted because it was only looking at the short term and that they needed to look at sustainable things, adding that to give each ward £5,000 this year, it was drained and gone.

Cllr Mytton said next year they were losing Ffos y Fran so come 18 months or two years all of these councillors who supported a number of different things would have zero.

“I think we should have thought that through a little bit longer rather than just gap fill SPF that we have no detail on.”

Councillor Geraint Thomas, leader of the Independent group, said: “I’m aghast. I’m aghast at what we’re being asked to do tonight.

“Why are we as councillors, representing the Merthyr Tydfil public, being asked to stop gap or put money into SPF.

“At the end of the day, Welsh Labour Government and UK Labour Government should be working together to make sure those post European funds are in place.”

He said if they were to give that money to stop gap SPF it should be like a bridging loan so when the money did come in from UK Government and Welsh Government and down to the council, they could pay it back into the community.

He said: “It’s a ridiculous ask. It’s a shocking ask to be fair. It’s not fair on the general public.”

Councillor Declan Sammon, of Dowlais and Pant Community Independents and cabinet member for transformation, governance and social partnership, said he could completely understand Cllr Mytton’s comments and frustrations.

He said it should have been an exempt report so all members had all the details.

Cllr Sammon said he was in a privileged position as a cabinet member as they knew where the money was intended to be spent and he said he couldn’t vote against that but he did think that maybe everyone should know.

Councillor David Hughes, Reform UK, agreed with Cllr Sammon that they should all know where the money was going.

“We’re supposed to be open and transparent here. We should know where that money is going.

“If you want us to vote for it, you should tell us where the money is going.”

Councillor Anna Williams-Price, Labour cabinet member for financial sustainability, assets and commercial, said she appreciated people’s comments and stressed that they had reflected heavily on the timing and the level of detail they were able to provide in the report at this stage.

“I do want to clarify and assure members that they will have the opportunity to vote on the specifics of how this fund is used as things progress.”