WALES’ First Minister Carwyn Jones visited Bangor last Thursday and brought with him a stark warning about the “challenging” future for public services in Wales.
Mr Jones has been touring the country to visit frontline public service staff to hear first hand how those services can be protected and improved.
However during talks at Bangor swimming pool with staff from Gwynedd Council’s regeneration, leisure and children’s services, as well as representatives from groups such as Bangor Pride and Maes G youth club, he stressed a belief that difficult times lie ahead.
The First Minister said: “The emerging figures from the UK Government’s Budget and messages about the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review are stark and potentially could be devastating in their impact, particularly on the most vulnerable.
“One thing we do know is that we will have budget cuts of 3 per cent for the next three years, which puts us in a very challenging position.
“We are encouraging local authorities to do what we have done, which is to go through the budgets line by line and look for ways to either keep a service going or not.”
Mr Jones added: ”I’ve heard of the success of Communities First from service users and I visited the Maes-G branch because it’s important for me to see how that scheme works in Bangor.
“In England they are now moving towards having the voluntary sector doing the work usually done by public sector workers and I don’t think we should move back to the days when the state abdicated responsibility in this area.”
Also present was Gwynedd Council leader cllr Dyfed Edwards, whose authority recently warned of a large rise in required spending cuts during the next three years.
He said: “This visit was a great opportunity to show the First Minister some of the excellent work and highly innovative projects that are being delivered by our council staff.
“Carwyn Jones was clearly impressed with what he saw in Bangor, and in particular by the positive attitude and enthusiasm of council staff and their determination to continue to deliver the best possible services for local people despite the worsening financial situation facing the public sector.”