THERE’S AN inescapable logic in Ceredigion council’s burning desire to equip itself with a fleet of exciting high-tech drones and its poverty-pleading plan to shut down public lavatories.

After all, the authority stresses that one of the most pressing arguments for launching itself into a Big Brother role with a fleet of spies in the sky is to watch out for “anti-social behaviour”.

Consequently, after public bogs have been closed, and people are forced to take emergency measures, what better way for the council to home in on such flagrant defiance of societal norms than by nabbing the miscreants in real-time through the unerring eye of an ever-lurking, all-seeing drone?

You can imagine the scene. Sprinting along the prom in Aberystwyth, not a care in the world, and suddenly that undeniable need. No problem, relief is at hand in the form of that conveniently-placed watering-hole next to the lifeboat-station. Just in time.

But ah, no! The runner dying to spend a penny or, quite happily, as currently, 40 times that, is confronted by a lav shuttered and barred. Despair, until a discreet recourse to the beach below suggests itself. A descent to the shore but, at that precise moment, there comes a whirring sound from above and there, wheeling about, is a county council drone, a specially fitted replica of a human arm now emerging from its side, its forefinger beginning a rhythmical wagging motion signifying shocked disapproval. Legal retribution seems sure to follow.

Big Brother says we have until 14 January to say what we think about his idea for spending undisclosed thousands on an armada of unmanned aerial vehicles.

How typical of this council that it should shy away from being open about cost, instead declaring evasively that drones and their camera systems are now “affordable” and a “cost-effective option for commercial and public sector use.” Really? Let’s instead talk priorities - like looking after carers, and giving teachers job-security.

Meanwhile, there is prolonged, and not unreasonable, bleating by the council about its below-inflation government funding increase for 2026-27, together with a warning that, without town and community council financial cooperation, a number of public lavatories throughout Ceredigion will close. But hang on, let’s not forget the forecast 6.9 per cent council tax increase, other cutbacks in public services spending and the authority’s strikingly undemocratic and stubborn intention to introduce socially and economically damaging parking charges along Aberystwyth seafront.

Against this background, lashing out on drones would be an indulgence, as well as highly questionable in terms of the public’s right to privacy.

While a council report argues vaguely that drones “would improve the efficiency of local services”, it at the same time seems to stray uncomfortably close to areas of police responsibility, with its loose reference to “overt collection of evidence to support investigative and enforcement actions” in “designated anti-social behaviour hotspots”.

Just as cost is put on one side, there is a suspicion that the council is being less than frank over the entirety of its motivation. It says: “There are also potential cost and efficiency benefits in other areas, such as surveying and structural inspections.” That sounds horribly like: “And yes, we could make a few people redundant. That would be very helpful.”

THE CAVALIER attempt to downgrade and shrink Machynlleth post-office threatens a completely unacceptable erosion of a vital public service.

Furious residents correctly plead the obvious: that to close the two distinct post-office counters at the back of the shared Spar shop and expect people to make do with a single counter for everything invites chaos and inefficiency.

More than 700 people are ramming home the point in a protest petition aimed at Blakemore’s, the company running both food-store and post-office.

Their indignation reflects the quiet fury of towns throughout rural Wales which increasingly are beset by downgrading or outright disappearance of post-offices and banks. Machynlleth’s militancy should inspire others, especially following reports - unconfirmed by the company - that Blakemore’s has agreed to put its highly insensitive downgrading idea on hold.

The basic point, however, shouldn’t be missed, which is that the Post Office - a public corporation - and banks must be made to realise that genuinely putting their customers’ best interests first must always be a central tenet of their operations - not an optional extra.

REASONS to be cheerful…

I write this on the morning of Sunday 21 December, and this afternoon it will be the winter solstice, the beginning of longer days and shorter nights. Spring is now not that far away. In our back garden near Aberystwyth, the morning dawns with a silvery light, and variously seen and heard are a blackbird, wren, wood-pigeon, magpie, mistle-thrush, fieldfare, redwing and jackdaw. World’s in a tangle, but spirits rise.