Welsh Government “need to go back to basics on some of their free society” and move cash to councils

“In three years time, I’ll be surprised if there’s any non-statutory services in any Council across Wales” is the bleak assessment from the leadership of Wrexham Council, who wants Welsh Government ‘vanity project’ cash redirected locally.

Yesterday we reported on the grim financial outlook for Wrexham Council, and how that looks likely to mean job cuts and a 12.5% rise in council tax.

Readers will have seen articles from our interview with First Minister hopeful Vaughan Gething – who challenged council leadership to put forward their own ideas of what they would trim from Welsh Government budgets to improve local authority funding.

Previously Executive Board members have pointed to the recent 20MPH roll out and increased Senedd members as examples of areas where money could be saved, so on Tuesday morning’s media brief we invited ideas from the Council Leader, Deputy Leader and Lead Member for Education on that topic.

Lead Member of Education Cllr Phil Wynn said, “National politicians they come in to change the world to make it a better place and to do that, but they’re always rolling out new policy initiatives. You can’t continue to do that unless at a national level they find the money to deliver those policies. I welcome to the rollout of the universal primary free school meals provision, just for Wrexham alone that has come at a cost of £5 million for this current year”.

Deputy Leader Cllr David A Bithell said, “It might be unpalatable to do, but Welsh Government have got free prescriptions, they have got free bus passes. They rolled out the 20MPH zones. If you add all that up from Welsh Government, I don’t think there’ll be any cuts to schools across Wales. ”

“There are people who need free prescriptions but that could be done on a on a basis on those who can, pay. My personal view is I think Welsh Government needs to go back to basics on some of their free society”

“Schools are going to be decimated, and they should have looked at it before now.”

A passionate Cllr Bithell continued, “You only get one chance when you are young in school, you don’t get three chances, you get one.

“I don’t think it was a good settlement from Welsh Government. They could have stopped all these projects and put the money into education and social care, which would have been far, far better acceptable to the public”

Stats Wales details figures behind free prescriptions, “In 2021-22 there were 82.8 million items prescribed by GPs in Wales and dispensed in the community, the highest on record. This is equivalent to 25.5 items per head of the population registered with a GP in Wales.

“In 2021-22, the total net ingredient cost of all items prescribed by GPs in Wales and dispensed in the community was almost £627 million, equivalent to £193.12 per head of population registered with a GP in Wales.” However, back in 2015 it was calculated that the 2007 move to free prescriptions only cost £3m more than what was being paid when the scheme was introduced – and was infact ‘saving the NHS money’.

The Council Leader Mark Pritchard said, “This is my challenge back to Vaughan Gething. He said that he would listen to the people. Well, first of all, if he does become the First Minister, he should scrap the 20 mile an hour instantly. If you look at the petition, and the money that was taken away from local authorities, the cost of it is unforgivable. It really is when we’re having to cut services.

“Then look at free prescriptions and free school meals. I believe there is a need and requirements across Wales for people, families who struggle and it should be means tested, that there are free school meals and free prescriptions. It’s madness though that you give away free prescriptions to everybody in this country. It’s costing millions.

“There are millionaires who have their children are going to school and get given free school meals.”

“Cardiff Airport. Over £50 million it cost, they’ve taken loans out over £50 million to keep it sustainable. The private sector, the aviation sector, walked away from it, because it was non profitable. The public will and are paying for it.”

“CJCs will cost millions. Millions of pounds for another layer of bureaucracy.

“In times of difficulty, you have to prioritise what’s right. If MSs are telling me their priorities are those, they need to look at themselves.”

“I’ve been involved in politics for over 20 years, I have seen the good and the bad. But some of these decisions which have been made at a national level needs to be challenged.

“We do challenge them robustly via the WLGA. For openness and transparency, I will put this gauntlet down, there needs to be video and audio in the WLGA meetings. So the general public can view and see the challenges what the council leaders are challenging to the MSs and to the First Minister.

“I can assure you there’s a robust challenge from most council leaders, but it’s never out there. It’s a silent challenge. Nobody sees it. There’s no accountability. Where is the accountability on the 20MPH fiasco, who’s accountable?”

The Council Leader went on, “You know, a leader across Wales did an interview when he said cuts could cause deaths, and you could have some fatalities here. He is right.”

“They need to really sit up and think about what we’re dealing with here now, because it’s a disaster. This disaster is unfolding around us.”

We asked the Chief Executive about possible significant safeguarding issues as a result of cuts, and was told, “From an officer point of view, our primary responsibility is to protect statutory services. We will always try and ensure that there are not safeguarding issues in relation to adults and children’s services.

“However, that places a huge pressure on what we call our discretionary or non-statutory services. It also places a huge pressure on council tax.

“The Wales fiscal analysis shows that actually the only way we’ve got addressing that pressure is either to cut services or increase council tax. ”

The Council Leader added, “I believe in three years time, I’ll be surprised if there’s any non-statutory services in any Council across Wales, because that’s where we are now”

“It is all about choices. What do they want to fund? Do they want to fund the vanity projects? Or do they want to fund local authorities? That’s where they are. And it’s unpleasant. It’s not nice.”