Calls have been made for internal auditors to probe Powys County Council’s planning services as Audit Wales are unwilling to conduct another review.

At a meeting of the council’s Governance and Audit committee on 20 June, staff attending the meeting from Audit Wales were asked to provide an update to members about a meeting they had with Montgomeryshire Conservative Senedd Member, Russell George.

Earlier this month Mr George met with the Auditor General for Wales Adrian Crompton and a team from Audit Wales to work through a list of concerns about the council’s planning service.

In April, Mr Russell wrote to Mr Crompton raising continued and serious concerns regarding the performance of the planning service.

Committee vice-chairman and lay member John Brautigam said: “I’m looking forward to hearing an update from that meeting.”

Emma Woodcock of Audit Wales said: “Everything that was talked about at the meeting was a valuable insight into what is perceived to be happening with the council’s planning service.

“The Auditor General (Adrian Crompton) is minded given that we have done one planning review and a follow up of that, we’re not going to undertake a further review of planning.

“But the information we have gathered in that meeting will be of relevance to the up and coming corporate governance review,

Gareth Jones of Audit Wales added: “We’ve finalised the scope of the corporate governance review and the focus will be on whether or not the corporate governance arrangements support the efficient and effective delivery of changes informed by sustainable Powys principles and approach.”

He believed this report will be published in the autumn.

Mr Brautigam said: “I’m not very happy about the way these planning issues are being dealt with, it’s our job to be assured that council departments are working properly and efficiently.

“The item in the press had the headline – planning not fit for purpose – that is out in the public domain, it’s up to us to be seen to be acting on this with some urgency and thoroughness.

“I don’t think subsuming the item into a wider study is sufficient.”

He felt that the issues need “another study.”

Mr Brautigam “If Audit Wales can’t do for resource reasons, then I think we should be looking at SWAP (council’s internal auditors) to do a quick in and out and look at the metrics of what’s going.

Committee chairwoman and lay member Lynne Hamilton said: “It’s not a decision to be made today, this committee needs to think very carefully on how it seeks assurance for this.

“There is reputational risk associated with this matter,”

Head of legal services, Clive Pinney advised the committee to discuss this “offline” with Audit Wales to find out why they decided against a further review before the committee decides it’s next course of action.

Ms Hamilton agreed to this – but she stressed that the committee wanted assurance on this matter.

In May 2023 Audit Wales published a damning report into the state of Powys council’s planning service and issued a number of recommendations for the council to address.

Last November, Audit Wales issued a follow up report which said that “overall” they had found that Powys planners had “responded quickly” to improve its arrangements.

But Mr George believes that the follow-up review did not provide a “comprehensive examination” of planning.