Public notices changes could do 'catastrophic' damage Senedd told

If these changes go ahead, would notice requirements in other areas, such as planning and transport, be next?

Plans to stop the legal requirement to publish notices of council tax charges in newspapers could have "catastrophic unintended consequences", a Senedd committee has heard.

Media organisations have warned of "damage" to Welsh journalism and ultimately to democracy in Wales.

The change would "disproportionately impact older people" the Older People's Commissioner has said.

But another news outlet said the law is "archaic" and needs reform.

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The Welsh government's consultation on the Local Government Finance (Wales) Bill includes proposals such as increasing the frequency of revaluations of the non-domestic rates system to three-yearly.

The proposals also suggest establishing a five-yearly cycle of revaluations of the council tax system.

There is also a clause to replace the current requirement to publish information of the council tax charges in newspapers with a requirement to publish a notice on the local authority's website, and "put suitable alternative arrangements in place to ensure that such information is accessible to citizens who have difficulty accessing online facilities".

The Welsh Local Government Association has told the Senedd's local government committee that local authorities across Wales spend around £33,000 a year on the tax notices.

A Senedd committee hears plans to stop the legal requirement to publish notices of council tax charges in newspapers could have "catastrophic unintended consequences"

Some media organisations are concerned there could be future changes to lucrative notice requirements in other areas, such as planning and transport.

Gavin Thompson, regional editor at Newsquest - which has local newspapers in Wales including the Leader in Wrexham, the Rhyl Journal, the Western Telegraph in Pembrokeshire and the South Wales Argus - told the committee the clause "would have catastrophic unintended consequences for the local newspaper sector in Wales".

While acknowledging that this Bill deals specifically with notices on council tax changes, he said these proposals would "set a direction of travel" for other areas, such as planning and transport.

He said six out of the ten Newquest local papers would have been loss-making last year without public notice revenue.

"As a business, we would not be able to continue printing loss-making titles," he warned.

"It would mean fewer journalists and fewer titles in Wales. It would also mean that Wales has a worse climate for local news than England."

'Even more challenging'

Speaking on behalf of Reach, the editor of WalesOnline, Steffan Rhys, said statutory public notices were an important source of income for news publishers at a time when their revenue is under "extreme pressure".

The proposed changes would make "a challenging situation even more challenging".

Mr Rhys said: "If you remove the requirement to put public notices in print titles, you are removing that information from a certain part of the public - there's no two ways about it.

"You're also removing revenue from publishers, that means publishers are able to do less journalism and that means the public is even less informed, so it's almost a circular effect."

However Rob Taylor from independent news outlet Wrexham.com, said the current law was "archaic" and welcomed the Welsh government's proposals.

"Back in the day, yes, circulations were huge and points of reference for many, many people - but the landscape has changed and it's a bad law, it's an out-of-date law."

He said the current law is "anti competitive along with restricting startup, or growth, of entities such as ourselves".

Rachel Bowen, director of policy at the office of the older people's commissioner for Wales, told the committee the proposals were further evidence of a "creep towards digitalisation and increasing exclusion".

She said the Welsh government's promise of "suitable alternative arrangements" was also an ambiguous replacement to the more specific requirement to publish in newspapers, and risked being an inadequate alternative.