Having looked at how local government in Wales has got to where it is, next it’s worth examining how local government in Wales operates.
For the last decade or so, most of the focus on local government reform in Wales has centred on the...
How Wales Works – Town & Community Councils: An overlooked reform?
Wales has around 730 town and community councils and up to 8,000 town and community councillors – or roughly one town/community councillor for every 390 people. Being able to pin down an exact number has been difficult and not exactly a good sign in itself.
As mentioned in Part I, while all of Wales is divided into communities, not every community has a council.
Only 12 unitary authorities are fully covered by town and community councils. Some have very few. Merthyr Tydfil, for example, only has one community council (Bedlinog & Trelewis) while Cardiff – the most populous unitary authority – only has six.
To summarise, here are the main differences between the 22 unitary authorities and town/community councils:
The biggest difference is that a town/community council works as a corporate body, with the Mayor/Chair acting as a presiding officer or senior spokesperson (usually on a one-year term).
As a corporate body, a town or community council makes decisions together with no single leader or cabinet – although they’ll receive appropriate advice from their Clerk. The unitary authorities have the Cabinet and senior officers to do this (with some regulatory decision-making delegated to committees).
Party politics plays less of a role at the town and community council level and many operate on a non-partisan basis. This isn’t always the case. There have been incidences of party or group allegiances causing arguments when contentious decisions are made.
Another key difference is the massive variation in the amount of money available to town/community councils. The smallest ones may raise enough money to cover the cost of hiring a Clerk and holding meetings – literally a few thousand pounds a year – but little beyond that. The largest ones may bring in hundreds of thousands of pounds in precepts annually.
There are some similarities between the two tiers too.
Both unitary authorities and town/community councils are chaired by a Mayor or equivalent elected for a one-year term.
Both tiers of local government are subject to audit by the Wales Audit Office and investigations by the Public Services Ombudsman. Both also have borrowing powers (though this strictly controlled at town/community council level) and are subject to the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act duties to promote the well-being of residents.
As of 2021, both have a “general power of competence” to do anything within the bounds of the law to benefit their communities (though this only applies to town/community councils that meet eligibility criteria).
Each town and community council usually has its own standing orders for how business is conducted. Although it doesn’t seem to be a strict requirement, in most cases town and community councillors are appointed to committees in the same way as their unitary authority colleagues.
I’ll be going into the issues facing town & community councils and arguments in favour of reform in Part III – though it’s also discussed in the link at the top of this section.
