What Ystradfellte Community Council does
Your Community Council is your first point of contact for any community issues you may have. Some of the jobs your Community Council does are:
- Sets the Precept (its annual budget, collected with your Council tax) and decides how this is to be spent
- Comments on planning applications/issues
- Provides and manages this website to inform the local community and visitors
- Supports local charities that successfully apply for small financial grants
- Works with the Police to safeguard the community
- Works in conjunction with highways authorities on highway improvement and traffic calming measures
- Liaises with our County Councillor
- Councillors try to keep in touch with what is going on in their patch and are always willing to try to help residents where they can – or find the right official or contact to deal with specific problems
- Does further things that it considers are likely to promote or improve the economic, social or environmental well-being of their area and/or persons in it
Welsh community councils were given the final discretionary power in the above list (referred to as “the Well-being Power”) under the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011. It can be used provided the community council is not restricted from doing the things by other legislation. Because the Well-being Power is wide-ranging, the Welsh Government regards it as a ‘power of first resort’ to Community Councils if they are in any doubt about whether existing powers would enable them to take a particular course of action. See Welsh Government Statutory Guidance on use of the Well-being Power.