Clwyd West MS Darren Millar has called on the Auditor General for Wales to investigate what appears to be an unauthorised spend of £620,000 on a 3G pitch at Eirias Park in Colwyn Bay by Conwy County Council.
The local authority has been accused of spending the substantial sum on the pitch without the decision going through the proper democratic process. The local authority submitted a multi-million-pound funding bid to the UK Levelling-Up Fund for the sports pitch, however the bid failed but the council funded the 3G pitch anyway.
Some members of the Finances and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee said they were concerned Conwy spent the money without the matter being debated.
The total cost of the project was £720,000. With £620,000 expected to come from a grant.
Since the story broke, Darren has received complaints from residents and has therefore written to the Auditor General for Wales asking him to investigate the matter.
Darren said:
“These are extremely serious allegations and taxpayers deserve to have answers.
“While I obviously welcome any investment by the local authority in the town, given the number of concerns that have been raised with me by residents, I have referred the matter to the Auditor General for Wales and asked that he investigates the issue.
“We are not talking about a small figure here, this is a huge amount of public money and we need assurances that the proper procedures for agreeing this spend were followed.”
Cllr Harry Saville, who is a Member of the Finances and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Conwy County Borough Council, said:
“My understanding is that we recently completed work on a new 3G pitch at Eirias at a cost of £720,000, and that this council needed a decision to commit that funding at the full council meeting on 14 July last year. I've had a look through both the committee report and the minutes, and certainly, to me, it isn't explicitly clear that we decided to allocate funding for that purpose.
“I welcome the fact that the matter has now been referred to the Auditor General for investigation and hope that he can get to the bottom of this once and for all.”
Old Colwyn Councillor, Cllr Cheryl Carlisle said:
“I am very pleased that this matter has now been referred to the Auditor General for investigation. On behalf of our residents this spend needs challenging. The new council administration has just raised our Council Tax by a record 9.9%, and our hard pressed residents need answers”
