CEREDIGION County Council must tell the Welsh Language Commissioner that the authority can’t afford the £70,000 it will take for translation costs to meet Welsh language standards, councillors have insisted.

The council is identifying how to make over £5m of cuts to its budget and the £70,000 required has so far not been identified within the departmental budget for legal and democratic services.

That has prompted some councillors to urge the authority’s leadership to tell the commissioner that it can’t spare the cash to meet the standards.

Cllr Ifan Davies, the chair of the corporate resources scrutiny committee, said Ceredigion Council had shown its commitment to the Welsh language and was one of the best-performing authorities in Wales in using and promoting the language, but expecting the council to spend £70,000 at a time when it was having to slash budgets was too much.

He said: “We as a county do more than any other in Wales for the Welsh language. We’re the gold standard.”

Cllr Ceredig Davies added that the £70,000 bill was the equivalent of 50 households paying Band D council tax.

He said: “It is a lot of money. Just to put it in perspective, Band D council is an average of £1,400.

“That’s 50 properties in Band D paying for it. That’s half of Talybont. That’s all of Pontrhydfendigaid. You need to go back to the Welsh Language Commissioner and say we can’t do it.

“If you don’t, you’re doing a disservice to the services that we’re having to cut."

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