Candidates were asked by audience member Ryan Bevan what they would do to support and improve Caerphilly’s public services.
Plaid Cymru’s Lindsay Whittle said “we’ve seen the spirit and soul of our communities slowly fade away with the erosion” of services, as amenities such as libraries and swimming pools closed or faced closure.
Investment, he said, needed to be in “the right places” not “top-heavy organisations”.
Green Party candidate Gareth Hughes said the way to fund public services adequately was by “taxing the rich” properly, getting those with the “broadest shoulders to carry the burden”, as was the case in continental European countries, he added.
Reform’s Llŷr Powell accused the Labour Welsh government of spending “vast sums of money on projects that don’t prioritise front line services”, saying he would “prioritise frontline services right now”.
Richard Tunnicliffe, who is defending the Caerphilly seat for Labour, heard accusations of hypocrisy, which he denied, for campaigning to keep libraries open when the local Labour council had been seeking to close them.
He said he was “passionate” about libraries and made books for a living, as he was a publisher, and he wants funding from a UK government scheme to help libraries to survive.
Liberal Democrat Steve Aicheler accused Tunnicliffe of hypocrisy but said there were “absolutely difficult decisions” to be made on budgets.
“Our priority is on care,” he said, promoting what he called his party’s “most ambitious child care plan for Wales.”
Conservative Gareth Potter said his party was the only one saying it would reverse next year’s expansion of the Senedd from 60 to 96 members, saving £120m.
“We’re the only party that says that £120m needs to go to frontline services in education and NHS, that’s how we’ll spend it,” he said.
