Call for full disclosure over TV costs

Plaid Cymru leaders in Carmarthenshire have called for a full disclosure of all likely costs of the TV channel which the county council and other public bodies locally are proposing to launch. Plaid’s leader, Cllr Peter Hughes Griffiths, said, “The more questions we ask, the less clear things seem to become. We know that the council has agreed to provide up to £30,000 and that the Local Services Board has agreed to pay a further £10,000, but it seems that a number of other public bodies have also been approached for contributions.

“This is a completely unacceptable way of proceeding. Each of the public bodies concerned is being asked to contribute a sum of money, but none of them seems to know the total cost of the project. Clearly, the final cost will depend on a proper competitive tendering process, but it really does seem to me as though decisions are being made ‘in the dark’. I think that the public should at least know which public bodies have been approached and how much each has been asked for – and ideally, we should all have at least some idea of the final total cost. I am seriously concerned about the possibility that the final cost will end up being very much larger than any of the individual contributors initially realised.”