More on Carmarthenshire TV
To be clear, I believe that the idea of the County Council launching an Internet TV station is a complete waste of taxpayer's money and will probably end up as another fluffy
To be clear, I believe that the idea of the County Council launching an Internet TV station is a complete waste of taxpayer’s money and will probably end up as another fluffy story propaganda machine for the Independent-Labour administration. The future hits on this blog will probably exceed those on any new service (which is saying something). The Council already produce and distribute several issues their Community News paper at a cost of £114,000 a year. They plan to drop one edition and accept further funding from the National Assembly to fund the station. The county will pay £30,000 towards the cost of creating the station. So in theory it will cost the Council no extra money to launch the new service. Plaid have quite rightly been quick to criticise the plans as a waste of money, especially during a period where the Council is looking to cut £6million from its budget. But why the Labour-Plaid Cymru Assembly Government is so enthusiastic to part fund the service while its own budget is under strain. The new TV service is arguable a natural evolution of the Community News paper. The paper was originally launched by the former Independent-Plaid Cymru administration. Do Plaid Cymru now accept that their policy of a free paper promoting the work of the Council is now a failure? Conversely, can Labour allow this money to be spent at a time when large cuts are being made to the Education and Social Care budgets? All money spend on publicising the work of the Council should come from the elected members of the political groups. Each Councillor already receives ample expenses and could easily afford to produce newsletters to promote their own party’s work, as I know many Labour Councillors already do. This story is unfortunately indicative of how the unaccountable Independent group is taking ratepayers for a ride. Any public notices can be advertised in the struggling local press or on the County website. There really is no need for the County Council to produce all this rubbish that hardly anybody wants to read. And in future if anyone wants a life-size photograph of Meryl Gravell’s face, I’m sure she will happily oblige at her own personal expense.