Why councils are important...

YOU probably know your local council collects rubbish, runs most schools in the area, does the social care bit of health and social care, and sends you an annual council tax bill.

But, with the council elections today, maybe you’d like to understand more about how it works.

Councils comprise numerous paid employees which include teachers and social workers. These employees ensure the running of multiple services, from education to street cleaning, road repairs to adult social care, libraries to leisure centres, parks to helping the homeless, and planning applications to trading standards.

Councils which have retained their stock of council housing, like Swansea and Carmarthenshire, set council rents, maintain the houses and flats, and, in more recent times, have begun building homes again.

Also known as local authorities, there are 22 councils in Wales, with much debate in recent years about shrinking that number. Every five years voters elect councillors to represent them on the council. These councillors are from various political parties but also include independent ones with no political ties. The party with the most councillors has a big say in how the council is run and what the priorities should be. In Swansea the administration has been Labour since 2012.

The winning party selects a council leader and forms a cabinet, which is a local authority’s principal decisionmaking body. Each cabinet member has a responsibility for a defined service area, also known as a portfolio, such as waste and the environment. Cabinet members work closely with council officers and directors as part of their day-to-day work.

Some councils have a minority administration because one party has half or close to half of the councillor seats. Some authorities have coalitions, meaning the largest minority party bands together with another party or group, like in Carmarthenshire

which has a Plaid Cymru-independent administration.

While the work of the officers goes on in the background, councillors are the visible face of a local authority, whether holding surgeries in the wards they represent or coming together for set-piece meetings.

All councillors are invited to full council meetings, where various subjects and priorities are debated and voted on. The most important is the annual budget meeting, where the council agrees on a programme of expenditure for the following financial year and sets council tax.

There are also scrutiny committees, where a smaller number of councillors representing different parties and groups scrutinise the administration’s priorities and the work more generally of the council.

Committees like planning and licensing make the council’s regulatory decisions, such as whether a housing scheme should be approved or whether a new bar should be granted a licence. A standards committee is there to promote high standards and support councillors to comply with the code of conduct.

Most council meetings are open to the public – in person before Covid, mainly online since – and people can submit questions.

Councillors receive a salary, which is based on a three-day working week. It is rising after the election from £14,368 to £16,800 per annum following an independent review. Cabinet members, the council leader, and the chairs of certain committees receive a higher salary.

Councils spend a lot of money. Most of it comes from the Welsh Government, via the UK Government.

Some of it is in the form of the revenue support grant, some from specific grants, and some a share of business rates. Local authorities raise a smaller proportion of their expenditure through council tax. They also raise money from things like parking, licensing, planning and crematorium fees, which help fund services.

They also get government grants for capital schemes, like new schools and the new Swansea Arena, but much of their capital expenditure is from borrowing.

There has been a shift towards a more regional approach to economic and transport planning and regeneration in recent years through so-called city deals and growth deals, which involve councils and other public sector bodies like health boards and universities banding together and agreeing projects with central government. The one for the Swansea Bay City Region comprises Neath Port Talbot, Swansea, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire.

Another regional layer has been introduced in Wales through corporate joint committees, which are made up of representatives from participating councils and allow for a more joined-up approach in transport, economic development and strategic planning.