A Builth Wells councillor to withdraw from a One Voice Wales committee, as it is a waste of his time being there

Councillor Mark Hammond has previously raised concerns about the Brecon and Radnorshire Committee saying it is not functioning properly with only eight out of 63 members attending a recent meeting and is not fit for purpose.

He urged the members of the committee to ‘punch with one unified fist’ to challenge Powys County Council’s Sustainable Powys project, and he called on them to start working together.

He said the county council would not listen to one of two councils alone raising issues, every committee member needs to be asking their county councillors for their views on Sustainable Powys.

Sustainable Powys sets out the future plans for the county.

Future Powys County Council services will be centred on four towns – Newtown, Welshpool, Llandrindod Wells and Brecon - as the authority outlines a radical shake up of provision.

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 recent Builth Wells Town Council meeting, Councillor Hammond said the committee is not doing anything and he had received little or no response to his concerns.

“It is a waste of my time being on that committee so my intention is to withdraw personally from One Voice Wales. It is achieving nothing, they do not want to change it and the management are not prepared to do anything so it’s not worth my time doing it.

“The relevance now of the area committee has gone past its sell by date.

“So I am just going to pull out of the area and policy committees but the town council should still be a member of One Voice Wales.”