Welsh council reveals £15k bill for 20mph statutory notices (£95k with 3/22 replies) – as Cardiff mulls binning archaic law

The Welsh Government is finally looking to change laws which require statutory notices to be published in local newspapers.

New data shows Caerphilly County Council spent £15,372.98 on such public notices to inform the public about 20MPH law changes.

The formal notices are normally found buried in the back pages of legacy publications, most of which have seen a large reduction in readers in the last few years.

The law currently means local authorities are obliged to use local papers when making announcements about issues which affect residents, including licensing applications and planning notices.

One of the most recent changes publicised in this way has been the new 20mph speed limit introduced in Wales.

As such, Wrexham.com has asked every Welsh council for details of how much they spent on formal notices regarding the new speed limit in built-up areas.

Powys Council was the first to reply stating they spent £60k on such notices.

Isle of Anglesey County Council spent £20,477.33

All councils so far also confirmed they don’t have data on circulations so don’t know the possible readership of the notices.

Ministers are looking at taking the first steps to update the outdated laws that require the publishing of ‘a notice of the determination in at least one newspaper circulating in its area’ – starting with the Local Government Finance Bill.

Such laws were criticised locally by the legal officer at Wrexham Council in June of last year.

At the time, they said: “There is now limited circulation of paper newspapers in areas, and a lot of authorities are reporting that actually, they don’t get a lot of feedback from that type of advertising.

“When they promote it through their digital means, and put it on their websites and promote it through social media, that’s how they get a lot of responses”.

The consultation run by the Local Government and Housing Committee has now closed, and it remains to be seen if they support the  ‘Section 20’ deletion that would see the phrase about ‘publishing a notice of the determination in at least one newspaper circulating in its area’ replaced with a ‘requirement to publish a notice of the council tax charges on the local authority’s website and put suitable alternative arrangements in place to ensure that such information is accessible to citizens who have difficulty accessing online facilities’.

Our FOI to all 22 Welsh councils is aimed at discovering the cost and reach of statutory notices placed in relation to the roll out of the recent 20mph limit following the Welsh Government law change. In this case, it mostly relates to the publishing of Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO).

Caerphilly’s reply is:

• They placed 2 notices.
• They were placed in just in the Western Mail.
• We asked for the latest circulation figures for the titles mentioned. They said they did not hold the information.
• The total cost of the placements was £15,372.98.

The figures for Wrexham have been FOI’d previously by local MP Sarah Atherton – highlighting a £32,500 spend. Wrexham Council have given us a much lower figure so far, so we have queried which is correct.

Caerphilly, Powys and Anglesey are not the only ones who place such notices without knowing circulation figures – we have previously reported how the Welsh Government spent towards a million pounds on such notices without recording any statistics on who is reading them.

We will publish further responses as and when they arrive.

Top pic: The statutory notice problem has been ongoing for years. The top image is from 2017 when we showed the Welsh Government was using taxpayers cash to pay for literally nothing.