Crunch meeting for Builth Wells leaders to come up with a unified response to planned service cuts
Builth Wells’ community leaders are to get together to come up with a unified response to county council proposals to cut services in the town.
The town council and Builth Wells’ county councillor Jeremy Pugh will meet to discuss issues arising out of ‘Sustainable Powys’ on January 7.
Members of the town council are also due to attend a meeting with the county council about the plans.
The only guaranteed services to market towns like Builth Wells will include bus stops/stations, primary schools, secondary schools, streetlights, waste and recycling, car parks. So the town is at risk of losing its leisure centre and library with residents having to travel to Llandrindod Wells to access council services.
The council says the strategy is being developed to ensure it can deliver stronger, fairer and greener services going forward, whilst remaining within the available budget.
The Council is currently forecasting more than a £20million gap for the 2024/25 financial year. This is expected to increase to £44million or more over the next four years.
At a town council meeting on Tuesday, Councillor Pugh said he felt they should meet outside the town council’s monthly meeting to discuss the matter and come to a consensus on their response.
He said the county council is saying the leisure centre etc could be taken over by other groups but he said the cost of repairs would be the main problem, not running the centre day to day.
Councillor Pugh said another issue is would Builth residents have to pay the same level of council tax as those in the four hub towns when they would have fewer facilities.
“There have been no meetings with county councillors to see if they have any better ideas. They are going to push it through whether we want it or not. I don’t think the response from Builth should just be my opinion, it would be good to meet and form a consensus for the town.”
Councillor Lynda Owen said they need to see some figures for the leisure centre because if it’s not making a profit now they would be flogging a dead horse. She said she uses the gym regularly and lots of people use the facilities and it’s been said that the swimming pool is making money.”
But Councillor Pugh said he believes some facilities at the leisure centre have already been cut back, and it’s not offering what it was. So he said they need to see figures for the past couple of years.”
Members agreed to meet on January 7 and to request figures for the leisure centre.
