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Peredur Owen Griffiths, who represents Plaid Cymru, is one of four regional Senedd Members serving the South Wales East region.

It’s been a period to forget for the Labour cabinet on Caerphilly County Borough Council. Between turning its back on the historic jewel in the crown in its leisure portfolio – Llancaiach Fawr – to entangling itself in a legal mess over its proposal to mothball Blackwood Miners Institute – another historic institution – whilst acting as a trustee to the building, the words ‘brewery,’ ‘organise’ and ‘knees up’ spring to the minds of many people I have spoken to. 

The icing on the cake came after the Labour council leader was forced to refer himself to the Public Services Ombudsman for breaching confidentiality rules he had laid down for other councillors. The incident came when he appeared to confirm the £200k plus pay out for the authority’s former chief executive Christina Harrhy. This information, the council leader decided, was to be kept behind closed doors.

The departure of the chief executive in itself was disappointing given it is the second time that a Labour-run Caerphilly County Borough Council has had to use taxpayers cash to settle an issue with chief officers. At a time when finances are clearly strained for councils up and down the land, people are rightly questioning whether this is the best use of scarce resources.

Of course, Caerphilly County Borough Council are not in a unique position when it comes to being cash strapped. Whilst many people feel they have not helped the situation with some poor decision-making, the scarcity of funds is seen throughout local government. As chair of the Senedd Finance Committee, I know full well that this issue is the same throughout public services in Wales.

I have regular conversations with my Plaid Cymru colleagues running local authorities elsewhere in the country and empathise with the difficult situations they face. It is fair to say many of the people I know in local government are having sleepless nights when faced with some of the difficult decisions they have to make.

This is why Plaid Cymru council leaders came together recently to send an open letter to Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan and Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves. They warned them that many councils are on the ‘brink of financial ruin.’

A decade-and-a-half of Tory austerity has left a deep scar throughout the public sector that has had grave consequences for so many, particularly the most vulnerable. What is needed now is not austerity 2.0 under Labour but a huge investment into public services to turn around our crumbling buildings, crumbling infrastructure and crumbling services. People have been asked to do more for less and it has reached a tipping point.

It would be disastrous for Wales if Labour adopts the discredited and thoroughly rejected Tory policies but, with things like the axing of the winter fuel payments for so many pensioners, this is the path they seem to have chosen. This is a grave mistake in my view and that of Plaid Cymru’s, which is why we have taken Labour to task in the Senedd and Westminster.

Labour will not like it but we will keep fighting against the squeezing of the public services we rely upon day-in, day-out.