BRYNCRUG Community Council has been accused of misleading the local people and not acting in the village’s best interests by a former councillor.

George Evans, who was a community councillor for three years, believes that the council was willing to raise precepts without any public consultation.

Mr Evans also suggests that the council operates on a ‘Welsh-only’ basis and have deliberately excluded English speakers from discussions on previous occasions.

The former councillor, who now chairs the Ganolfan Committee in the village, used the annual bonfire celebration as an example of the council’s “underhand” tactics.

“The Ganolfan Committee has organised and paid for the Bonfire for the last few years but this year the community council criticised us for not cleaning up the site following the festivities,” Mr Evans claimed.

“There were two problems we had with the council’s actions.

“The first was that they sent out their letter of complaint in Welsh only. I’m a Welsh-speaker myself but the Ganolfan Committee has several English-speaking members which the community council is well aware of.

“Secondly, we asked the council if they would be prepared to take on the bonfire to show us how to do it ‘properly’.

“The next thing we know Bryncrug Council is looking to raise their precept by £1,000 despite the fact that we’ve always managed to put the event on for free by collecting money from collection buckets and refreshment stalls.”

In response, a spokesperson for Bryncrug Community Council said: “We raised the precept by £1,200 on the understanding that Gwynedd Council would be devolving a number of services to us so we were proactive in raising the necessary funds.

“Regarding the bonfire, we would not be willing to risk £1,000 of the ratepayers’ money with no guarantees that we could recoup the full amount without consultation.

“Finally, the Welsh letter in question was sent to Mrs Nancy Clark who was the minute secretary for the community group.

“As she and the then acting clerk for the community council and had been discussing the great progress she had been making in learning the Welsh language he thought it would be a good exercise for Mrs Clarke to receive the letter in Welsh – absolutely no disrespect was intended."

Read the full story in this week’s Meirionnydd edition of the Cambrian News, in shops now, or available by clicking the digital editions link above