The new leader of Caerphilly Council has underlined his opposition to austerity policies as he sets out his plans for the county borough.

Fixing the A469, revitalising town centres, and continuing to trim unnecessary spending are all among Cllr Jamie Pritchard’s priorities in his new role.

He took the top job earlier this month, filling the chair vacated by his predecessor, Cllr Sean Morgan, who quit during a rocky few weeks for Welsh Labour which culminated in the party losing a Senedd seat to Plaid Cymru.

At the time, Cllr Sean Morgan blamed wider disillusionment with Labour’s direction – but also hit out at candidate selection processes for that by-election, which he alleged had left Cllr Pritchard out in the cold.

In the wake of that fallout and Labour’s subsequent defeat, Cllr Pritchard insists his relationship with the party higher-ups is “not damaged”.

“Every party has a few challenging moments,” he said, sitting at a meeting table in his new corner office at Ty Penallta, the council’s headquarters in Tredomen.

“Sometimes there are going to be bones of contention, but you’ve got to get through it.”

But he warned he would not stay silent on his beliefs that the “austerity project has failed” in Westminster, making things “very, very hard” for local authorities.

The vast majority of council funding comes from the Welsh Government which, in turn, receives its funding from the Treasury.

Provisional figures for next year suggest Caerphilly Council will receive a 2.6% funding increase, worth nearly £9.9 million.

But this is “nowhere near enough” and amounts to “effectively another real-terms cut when you consider inflation........

© South Wales Argus