In his regular blog for Caerphilly Observer South Wales East AM Lindsay Whittle gives his take on recent news.
Christmas Lights
Many people will have been disappointed to hear that Caerphilly’s Labour-run council has pulled funding for Christmas lighting across the county borough.
They say the money is needed for frontline services but were there other sources that could have been tapped?
For instance, has the authority contacted major employers in the county borough to ask if they would provide sponsorship. It happens in Cardiff and if you don’t ask you don’t get.
Also, there were areas of funding that could be trimmed. The Labour council upped the number of Cabinet members to 10 as soon as they were elected back in 2012.
Plaid Cymru has been urging them to reduce then numbers in recognition of these austere times but we have been met with a straight ‘no’.
Other Labour local authorities have at least recognised that councillors should take their fair share of cuts. Labour won’t even reduce the number of Cabinet members to nine, the number Plaid Cymru worked with in the years from 2008 to 2012.
I’m pleased to say that Plaid-run community and town councils in Penyrheol, Trecenydd & Energlyn along with CaerphillyTown Council will be ensuring there is Christmas cheer by providing s0me lighting.
Fun Day
I’m looking forward to the annual fun day on Trecenydd playing fields on Bank Holiday Saturday, August 29.
The local community and the community centre managements have been working together and it should be an excellent day – particularly if the weather is kind.
As I’ve said before these type of events bring the community closer together. Thanks to everyone for their hard work.
Flood Risks
Climate change is an increasing issue wherever you live with many areas suffering from increasing flooding risk.
Caerphilly council is current seeking residents views on its draft flood risk plan.
The consultation ends on Monday so if you have any issues where you live it will be worth making your views known to the authority
I am in the rare position of not be able to disagree with anything Whittle has written. I would say I am not surprised Labour is struggling to find alternative cuts – Labour never were the party of careful fiscal management.
I would suggest the council cull the number of councillors representing each ward by one. Unless the ward has one councillor where that councillor would have to be kept, the other wards can see a decrease in their councillors. Doing so would allow the council to axe 33 councillors, and cuts to the number of cabinet positions will increase savings from £450,000 per year for culling the number of councillors, to upwards of £500,000 per year.
So flooding in Caerphilly is down to unproven climate change and not concreting over the green fields?
Apparently so. In the Telegraph earlier some international think tank released a paper saying climate change would devastate water supplies in the UK….if desalination plants, reservoirs, and other water recycling methods are not taken into consideration that is.
The telegraph also just did an article on how uncool Rita Ora really is, It’s not what it once was. To quote Ian Hislop, ” They have replaced anybody worth reading” (from memory).