“This report on the democratic health of community and town councils… highlight(s) significant challenges that, if left unaddressed, threaten the very foundation of local democracy.”
Shereen Williams, Chair, “Democratic health of community and town councils”
Boards Wales takeaways:
- Community and Town Councils play an important role in the creation and maintenance of local amenities
- Most wards are uncontested and more than 20% of seats were unfilled at the last election (2022); this offers an opportunity for many more people to participate in the electoral process, but also demonstrates the current lack of interest in this level of local democracy
- There are isolated examples of poor practice or worse; higher levels of participation could help improve governance by increasing scrutiny and widening the pool of local candidates to increase cognitive diversity
What are community and town councils?
Community and Town Councils (CTCs) form the level of democracy that is closest to the citizens of Wales. There are 735 of them across Wales. The representative body of CTCs in Wales is One Voice Wales (OVW) which provides plenty of information about councils, and offers a range of supporting services, via its website.
CTCs are responsible to local electorates for ensuring that local amenities are kept to a good standard. Some areas of Wales are not covered by CTCs; OVW has advice for people who want to set up a CTC where that function is not currently available. According to OVW, the range of services that can be provided include:
….the provision and maintenance of community transport schemes, traffic calming measures, local youth projects, tourism activities, leisure facilities, car parks, village greens, public conveniences, litter bins, street lighting, street cleaning, burial grounds, allotments, bus shelters, commons, opens spaces, footpaths, bridleways, and crime reduction measures.
CTCs are made up of elected or co-opted members. A typical CTC represents around 1,500 citizens, but the largest (Barry) represents more than 50,000 people. Your local authority website will probably help you find the contact details for your CTC. For example, Cardiff Council lists six, and there are 40 on Ynys Môn. The DataMapWales portal can be used to quickly find the name of your local CTC.
The report
November 2024 saw the publication of a report on the democratic health of Wales’ town and community councils. The conclusions make worrying reading. They include:
- Lack of awareness of CTCs, and confusion about the different layers of local and central government (particularly for young people)
- Some CTCs demonstrating reluctance to change, and not reflecting the diversity of the electorate
- Ways of working of CTCs perceived as being boring – meeting formats, minutes, bureaucracy etc
- Some issues of financial mismanagement or fraud tarnishing the reputation of the sector.
The report makes numerous recommendations for improvement, based premodinantly around the ‘Rebuild’ path. However the report also suggested a ‘Modernise’ path that would presume that the current model was outmoded, and set out a new model for local governance to replace CTCs.
One of the major issues, from the perspective of democratic challenge, is the number of uncontested wards. In the last elections (2022), only 281 wards were contested, against 1,275 uncontested wards. Of the 7,883 seats on offer in the 2022 election, 1,770 remained unfilled (22%). Whilst these statistics demonstrate a lack of appetite or awareness for people to participate in the most local tier of elected responsibility, it does offer a glorious opportunity for people wanting to become more engaged supporting local communities because the barriers are so low, and in many cases simply non-existent.
Problems ahead?
Audit Wales has highlighted issues around financial management in CTCs, specifically that half of the £50m nominally spent by CTCs is done so under ‘qualified’ accounts (which means that there are reservations about the accounts). Although most financial issues are probably accidental, there have been some notable cases of fraud, indicating problems with governance and scrutiny. As the Chair of the report said:
This is not merely about councils failing to meet expectations; it is about the risk of losing a crucial layer of democratic representation if we fail to act now. It is not delivering the best outcomes for local communities, nor the best value for the public money. It is not engaging local people, nor reflecting their diversity and aspirations. It is not adapting to the changing needs and challenges of the 21st century, nor taking advantage of the opportunities and innovations that it offers.
The issue of the lack of diversity of candidates standing for election for CTCs was one of the two main reasons for the commissioning of the report. Hopefully highlighting both the problems and the opportunities that the CTCs represent will mean more people take an interest in them in future.
Rotten voting system?
One of the reasons given for such poor levels of interest in local elections is the voting system. According to the Electoral Reform Society, the First Past the Post method (which will still be implemented in the next elections in 2027) reduces the incentive to stand in competitive seats:
“First Past the Post is an all-or-nothing system. Challenger candidates can put in weeks of work and win substantial shares of the vote but get nowhere at all. The barrier to winning election is just too high to make it worth trying.”
Although Welsh electoral law now makes it possible for local authorities to change the way Councillors are elected, the method for changing the system has been described as ‘absurd’ and ‘farcical’ after several Councils did not reach the 2/3 majority required to change to Single Transferable Vote from First Past the Post, despite there being evidence that the public wanted the change.
Business as usual for 2027, then!
A final word on information on the sector; as well as OVW, the tireless work of Oggy Bloggy Ogwrshould be commended for continuing to report on this tier of government which generally functions without much public attention.
Picture credit: Elliot Stallion (Borth from the sea)
This blog post is the personal opinion of David Clubb.