A REVIEW into an Anglesey community council accused of “persistent failings” is to go ahead as part of a scheduled wider island review to save money and resources.
Pentraeth Community Council was accused of “poor judgement and a serious lack of transparency regarding local governance and representation” by members of the electorate.
A petition was submitted to Anglesey Council on July 28, calling for it to initiate a community governance review.
Speaking at a meeting of Anglesey County Council’s executive on Tuesday (September 23), Councillor Carwyn Jones said community members had “lost confidence” in the community council.
The executive unanimously agreed “to conduct a review into Pentraeth Community Council, in accordance with a petition request, submitted by members of the electorate”.
It also agreed “to conduct the review as part of an island-wide section 31 community review”.
The cost and resource-saving measure would mean the island review would just get under way slightly earlier.
Cllr Jones said: “A community review should ideally precede an electoral review by the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission for Wales.
“We were recently informed that the Commission will be undertaking an electoral review in Anglesey, from September, 2027 to July, 2028.
“The county council is planning to conduct a section 31 community review across the island before the next local government elections in May, 2027.
“Therefore, we recommend conducting the Pentraeth review as part of the wider island review, allowing for more efficient expenditure of public funds and staffing resources.
“It should also be noted that resources will be stretched by the need to plan and prepare for the Senedd elections in May, 2026.
“A community review will need to be concluded before with local government elections in May, 2027 and the Local Democracy and Boundary Commission electoral review in September, 2027.
The petition also requested that the county council suspended any co-option or electoral appointments to Pentraeth Community Council until a community review had taken place.
Officers wrote back to the petition organiser on August 8, 2025 to explain that “the correct procedures” had been followed with election and co-option arrangements to the community council, and that the county council had “no lawful authority to intervene in the process,” Cllr Jones said.
Head of democratic services Dyfan Sion told the meeting the community review process “considered arrangements for representation” on community councils.
They are usually held to ensure that electoral arrangements are suitable, before a local government election is held, he said.
Conducting an island-wide review was “quite a significant piece of work,” with “specific steps” to be followed, he said.
The first of four steps was publicising the review, the second would see investigations including an initial public inquiry.
The third step was for draft proposals and consultation and the fourth, for final recommendations.
“We intend to hold step one and two between December, 2025, and April 2026, and the two final stages would be between June, 2026 and December 2026,” he said.
“There will be a pause between steps two and three because we will have the Senedd Cymru elections in May, which will take up our resources.
“We had intended to undertake a community review before then, the process would have been completed before the elections in 2027.
“Because we have received this petition from Pentraeth, we will include the community review for Pentraeth as part of the island-wide review, but we will now start the process a little earlier.”
