'Strong disagreements' at Citizens Advice charity

Tal Michael accepts there have been "strong disagreements" at the Bangor office

The chief executive of a Gwynedd charity has been given a vote of confidence by trustees after allegations of a 'toxic environment'

Half the volunteers at Bangor's Citizens Advice branch have resigned.

Speaking anonymously, people familiar with the Bangor office said there was an "awful, toxic environment where volunteers were treated with contempt"

Chief executive Tal Michael said there were "difficulties" and "strong disagreements"

BBC Wales' Newyddion 9 has learnt that eight volunteers have resigned, leading to a cut in face-to-face appointments for clients seeking advice on wide ranging issues such as debt and employment.

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Mr Michael, a former Labour and assembly election candidate, said there had been tensions between himself and those who were working free of charge for the service.

"I wouldn't use the word toxic" he said.

"But there were certainly difficulties. People had strong disagreements. I wouldn't agree that people weren't listened to.

"They were all given a chance to put forward their views. They were actually more upset because the trustees didn't agree with them."

The Bangor branch is now renting a building after putting its office up for sale

Those who spoke confidentially to the programme questioned the decision to put the Bangor office up for sale and move to a rented building at a cost of nearly £20k a year.

Mr Michael said the move was necessary in order to make a bid to locate the Citizens Advice national call centre in Bangor.

The bid was unsuccessful.

Mr Michael said he now hoped to establish a partnership with Bangor University in order to stay in the rented offices.

He told Newyddion 9: "We will find out in the next week whether we have been successful in that. If we have then it will be a no brainer.

"We will want to stay in this building.

"If not we've got a difficult decision to make"

Asked if he was the right person to lead the charity in Gwynedd, Mr Michael added: "When we had volunteers saying I wasn't the person, I thought it right and proper to put their case to the trustee board without me present and they have unanimously agreed they wanted me to stay."