THE Welsh Audit special inspection, audit year 2013-14 into governance at Caerphilly Council has concluded that many of problems the council have faced over the last few years date back to decisions made in 2010 by the then Plaid-led council.

The report pulls no punches and its findings highlight areas where governances were weak or non-existent.

It states that the pace of change and a combination of a number of weaknesses inevitably led to governance failings, such as a lack transparency, quality of reports and a failure to provide effective scrutiny.

The report draws attention to the dual roles of officers, where the newly appointed chief executive kept his role as head of environmental services.

This led to confusion and had an adverse effect on accountability, where decisions made by senior management in the environment department were taken by the chief executive rather than a director; as a result there were was no challenge to the decision making process.

Remarkably, Plaid’s leader defended the dual role of officers by claiming it saved £250k.

I feel that many readers will find Cllr Mann’s remarks to be rather ill judged, as the dualling of roles led to an appalling lack of governance and ultimately loss of reputation for our council.

However, the report does highlight the improvements that have been made since 2012.

Cllr Nigel Dix Montclaire Avenue Blackwood