PLANS to give council staff a day off to celebrate St David’s Day could cost the taxpayer £200,000.

Gwynedd Council Cabinet members will meet next Tuesday, 18 January, to discuss the proposal to give its staff a day off on 1 March.

An alternative suggestion could see staff getting a half-day instead, at a cost of £100,000.

The figures have been suggested as the amount of money needed to pay for staff to cover the full, or half-day holiday.

At a meeting of the full council on last October, it was resolved that the council asks cabinet to consider officially recognising St David’s Day by giving a day’s leave to its workforce to celebrate St David’s Day on 1 March this year, and every year.

The council also resolved to call on Westminster to devolve power to Welsh Government to allow them to create bank holidays for Wales in the same way Scotland and Northern Ireland do.

A report for cabinet to consider states the annual cost to the council of approving an additional day’s leave to celebrate St. David’s Day would be approximately £200,000 for a full day off, or approximately £100,000 for a half day.

“These costs are primarily due to the requirement to employ casual staff in order to ensure service continuity during staff absences on the additional day’s leave,” the report notes

“Cabinet members are reminded that it would not be possible to include teachers since the council has no power to amend those conditions of service at a local level.

“Obviously, if we were to establish an additional day’s holiday on a permanent basis, then we would wish to include teachers in such an arrangement. It is therefore also recommended that the council should persist in calling on the Westminster Government to devolve power to Welsh Government for the purpose of establishing bank holidays in Wales.

Following last October’s meeting, the council chair wrote to Westminster about introducing an extra Bank Holiday in Wales.

A response was received on 10 December which noted that the Westminster Government had no plans to change current arrangements for establishing bank holidays in Wales.

“If the cabinet favours the option to establish St David’s Day as an additional holiday for 2022 only and is keen to further consider options for the longer term, it will be possible to immediately adjust staff’s annual leave entitlements for the current year whilst also conducting further discussions with the recognised trade unions in respect of future arrangements, with a view to report on the recommendations in June of this year.”