Cardiff’s Liberal Democrat councillors have expressed shock that Cardiff Council has so far spent over £300,000 for external professional advice regarding a dispute with HMRC over a purportedly under-declared landfill tax assessment.

As revealed in the council’s Statement of Accounts for 2017/18, which were presented to a meeting of the full council in September 2018, the council is in dispute with HMRC regarding a potential under-payment of landfill tax dating back to 1 April 2015 in relation to waste tipped at the Lamby Way landfill site. HMRC believes that some materials disposed of should have had the standard rate of tax applied rather than a lower rate which was in fact paid, with the difference in the tax rate being £80 a tonne. The council has previously refused to disclose how many tonnes of waste HMRC believes this applies to.

Now, in a reply to a written question tabled by the council’s Liberal Democrat spokesperson for finance, Councillor Rodney Berman, the council has revealed that as of 27 January 2019, it has paid out £323,533 so far for external professional advice.

Cardiff's Labour administration is is letting down the Council's gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans staff after it failed to make the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index Top 100 Employers.

Figures from Cardiff’s Annual School Performance report show that pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds, children in care, and children on Free School Meals in our schools are performing worse than their counterparts.

The Labour administration should reconsider its proposals to exclude dogs from all of the city's marked sports pitches.

Cardiff Liberal Democrats have withdrawn the motion they submitted for debate at Thursday's council meeting in protest at Cardiff Council's refusal to allow a debate on the People's Vote.

The Lib Dems submitted a motion for Thursday’s full Council meeting that, if successful, would have authorised the leader of the Council to write to the UK Government, supporting the case for a final, meaningful and free vote (a “People’s Vote”) on any terms of departure struck with the EU. This would include an option to stay in the EU.

However, the wording the Council's Lord Mayor has allowed removes all mention of a People’s Vote.

The changes to our original motion are unacceptable.

The no-deal Brexit towards which an incompetent Tory government is leading us, will harm Cardiff’s economy, devastate research and innovation and lead to deeper pressures on staffing levels within the health and social care sector.

Debate on the People’s Vote has been rejected on the grounds that Brexit is not the responsibility of the Council.

This is nonsense.

Brexit will have devastating effects on Cardiff’s residents, the very people we were elected to represent, a majority of whom want a second vote. To pretend it is not our responsibility is perverse.

Other councils in the UK have debated the People's Vote. To deny us the right to debate this live issue is undemocratic.

The Tories are making a complete hash of our exit, as this week’s humiliating summit in Salzburg has shown.

The Labour party, lead by arch-Brexiteer Jeremy Corbyn, is ignoring the clear majority of his party. The fudged position agreed by their conference this weekend reveals his true colours.

No wonder they don’t want to debate this matter.

We urge like-minded members of the other political groups on the council to support us in our call for this debate to be allowed. It’s not enough to say you want a People’s Vote. You have to act to make it happen.

With figures showing that more than one in every ten children in the Welsh capital aged 4-5 are obese, as well as around one in every four adults aged 45-64, Cardiff’s Liberal Democrat councillors are calling on the Cardiff Council to take a lead in drawing up and delivering a strategy for combating obesity amongst the city’s wider community.

They have tabled a motion for debate at the full council meeting taking place on Thursday 19 July. The motion, which is proposed by Penylan councillor Rodney Berman and seconded by Pentwyn & Llanedeyrn councillor Emma Sandrey, asks the council’s administration to work with partner organisations in the city, including Cardiff & Vale University Health Board and Public Health Wales, to draw up a strategy that includes proposals aimed at reducing levels of obesity amongst both adults and children over the next 5-10 years.

Commenting on the news that Cardiff’s new bus station may not be operational until late 2020, Councillor Rodney Berman, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Investment & Development on Cardiff Council, said:

“It is shocking to learn that Cardiff’s proposed new bus station may only be operational by late 2020.

“The Labour Party fought the 2012 local election in Cardiff calling for the delivery of a new bus station to be accelerated and has run Cardiff Council ever since. Ahead of that election, the previous Liberal Democrat-led administration had firm plans in place for the new bus station, with funding secured and allocated.

“Whilst the process for securing the site still had to be completed at that stage, the fact the project has subsequently been so delayed whilst the council has been under Labour control is nothing short of a travesty of incompetence.

“It is hard to understand how an eight-year wait for a new bus station to be up and running can be seen as speeding up its delivery. Labour has clearly failed to deliver on its promise and, in doing so, has badly let Cardiff down.”

Friday April 27th will mark 1,000 days since Labour closed Cardiff’s bus station. 

Cardiff Lib Dems offer lower council tax rise with more investment in roads, clean streets and supporting the city’s most vulnerable