Equal pay: Welsh councils 'struggling' to pay cost of claims

Most Welsh councils have not settled equal pay claims - more than five years after the deadline for settling cases, BBC Wales has discovered.

Under an agreement with unions in 1997, councils had agreed to settle all claims, estimated at totalling more than £75m, by 2007.

But only three of 22 have settled in full, and some have yet to pay a penny.

Council leaders insisted the issue was "very, very complex".

Prof Hugh Coombs, professor of accounting at Glamorgan University, specialising in public service finance, told Peter Johnson of BBC Radio Wales that some councils have struggled to pay the cost.