Tory praises £50,000 'good sense'

Powys is the largest and most rural county in Wales

A Conservative assembly member has praised the "traditional good sense" of councillors in Powys for rejecting plans to spend up to £50,000 on a consultants' study.

Ten councillors led a successful revolt against a proposal to commission a report to identify ways in which the authority could better promote itself.

A full meeting of the council reversed the approval granted at an earlier meeting which had been attended by just one-third of local councillors.

Tory Mid and West Wales AM Glyn Davies said he believed people would think better of the council for making the decision.

The traditional good sense of the typical rural councillor has shone through again Conservative AM Glyn Davies

"I am really pleased that the council has decided not to go ahead with this report.

"The traditional good sense of the typical rural councillor has shone through again," he said.

"If only the assembly government was as willing to listen to the people.

"The councillors wanted to know what people think of them - they can rest assured that the people will have a much higher opinion of them as a result of this decision.

"We will feel a wee bit less resentful when we have our council tax bill next year."

Councillors originally met to decide on the proposal nearly three weeks and agreed by a narrow margin to support it.

Glyn Davies says people will think better of the council for its decision

But as only 25 members of the 73-strong council were present, 10 councillors presented a meeting of the full council with a motion to overturn the decision this week.

A council spokesman said: "There was a motion signed by 10 councillors asking for a decision to spend up to £50,000 on an economic impact study to be reversed.

"It was overturned as the motion was carried by a large majority."

Councillors voted 39 to 16 in favour of the motion to drop the study.

He added that the council had only proposed spending up to £50,000 on the study. Tenders that had come in before the proposal was scrapped had been in the region of £23,000.