Welsh Local Government Elections

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:58 pm on 27 April 2022.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 1:58, 27 April 2022

I'd absolutely like to join Jane Dodds in recognising the important role of town and community councillors in serving and shaping their local communities, and I've had some really good meetings with One Voice Wales to understand what the sector believes that its potential is. And I know that we have town and community councils of all shapes and sizes and of all kinds of experience and levels of ambition, and I think that it's important that we look to those town and community councils that are making really, really impactful choices within their communities and to explore how we can use One Voice Wales and others to help other town and community councils to look to that level of ambition. I think that we've got some amazing case studies that we can look to right across Wales.

But, again, being a town and community councillor is another way you can make an incredible contribution to your community. Again, you're very accessible, so this is one of the things that we need to ensure, that people don't feel that that fact that you're usually well known in your community is something that should necessarily be a barrier. Because another one of those things that was mentioned in the article to which Sam Rowlands referred was the sense that councillors and town and community councillors feel that they need to be on duty 24/7, they need to drop everything at 10 o'clock on a Friday night to go and deal with the immediate issue that they've been telephoned about. So, that kind of support for a work-life balance for those councillors, particularly at town and community level, I think is really important as well.