CEREDIGION County Council has revealed that its Gold Command team will continue to make operational Covid-19-related decisions "for the time being" - despite calls from the opposition for the group to be disbanded.

Since March last year, delegated powers have been given to the council’s chief executive Eifion Evans and the Gold Command leadership group – made up of senior officers and councillors – allowing them to make “urgent decisions relating to the authority’s response to the pandemic”.

Over 1,000 separate decisions have been made under the delegated powers during the last 18 months, without the full input of councillors, including the setting-up of the safe zones in town centres across the county, and the reintroduction of parking fees.

In recent weeks calls have been made by some Ceredigion councillors for Gold Command to be disbanded, after the majority of coronavirus restrictions were lifted by the Welsh Government as the country moved to alert level zero.

An email was sent to all of Ceredigion Council’s cabinet members from the leader of the opposition group, Cllr Ceredig Davies, asking if cabinet would now be disbanding Gold Command given that Wales has moved to alert level zero.

No response was received, according to the opposition, so Cllr Davies wrote to Ceredigion County Council leader Ellen ap Gwynn asking that the delegated authority given to Gold Command be rescinded.

He wrote: “Following the announcement made by Mark Drakeford that Wales was now at Alert Level Zero and on behalf of the Liberal Democrat councillors on Ceredigion Council I am asking you as leader to rescind the delegated authority given to the chief executive, on March 25, 2020, and in his absence a corporate director and any membership of the leadership group.

“Notwithstanding all the hard work undertaken by officers of the authority we are now at a point where democratic accountability for all decisions needs to be returned to councillors.”

Aberaeron councillor Elizabeth Evans has confirmed on social media that in the last council meeting of March 20, 2020, before the first national lockdown, councillors were asked to devolve Covid powers to Gold Command.

“The opposition group objected to this and said the leader and deputy should retain their powers. The council agreed," she wrote in a Facebook post.

"Five days later on March 25, 2020, the leader and deputy signed a document devolving decision-making powers for all Covid-related issues to Gold Command without any democratic input.” 

Gold Command received praise during its early response to the pandemic as cases initally remained low in the county -  and in a statement from the council to the Tivy-Side last week, it has been confirmed that Gold Command will continue to operate "as rates remained high."

It stated: "Gold Command will continue to operate for the time being to make operational COVID-19 related decisions.

"COVID-19 rates remain high in the county and are increasing in some areas, especially in coastal areas where there are a large number of tourists.

"The Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council will review the decision to deletage powers to senior officers in their absence by the end of August.

"Please note that Gold Command operates under the ‘Civil Contingencies’ act due to the pandemic and not because of a consensus by the Leader and Deputy Leader.

"The Cabinet does not feel that there is a democratic deficit in the current system as weekly meetings between the Cabinet and Senior Officers have continued throughout the pandemic."

The Gold Command was last handed delegated authority in May, with a fresh review to be made on 31 August “or when the Covid-19 alert system indicators reach Tier zero alert level” - as has now happened.