BEHOLD Ceredigion council - the local authority that swore blind it was broke and accordingly demanded stratospheric rates rises.

  The council that then decided its supposed poverty was all a bad dream and, with a flick of the money magician’s wrist, conjured up a mighty half million pounds.

  For what, you may ask. Surely something of indisputably monumental importance.

  Well, not quite. Because this £500,000 of scarce public cash is destined to be blown on a single high-octane weekend fling - a fleeting three-day homage to the high-decibels, high-speed world of car-rallying.

  Acting alone, without official scrutiny from rank-and-file councillors, the cabinet and officials pledge support potentially totalling £500,000 for last week’s Rali Ceredigion, a dizzying amount even if local government was not constrained in a financial straitjacket, which generally throughout Wales and most of the rest of Britain is certainly the case. 

  Not so, apparently, in the case of Ceredigion council. But where is this promised largesse headed? Among those who will benefit is Germany’s WRC Promoter GmbH, the commercial arm of the European Rally Championship (ERC), of which Rali Ceredigion is now a part. Each event in the ERC calendar must pay a fee, understood to be tens of thousands of pounds, to WRC.

  The Munich firm is owned jointly by German investment company KW 25 and by Red Bull, the fabulously rich Austrian energy drink multinational. Red Bull does very well for itself. Last year, 12 billion cans of its product were knocked backed globally, generating sales of nearly £8.5 billion. You can safely say it doesn’t need any help from Ceredigion taxpayers.

  Approached by this column, neither Rali Ceredigion nor the council would say how much was being paid to WRC, claiming they would be in breach of contractual obligations if they did.

  Neither would it reveal how much would go to Podium Promotions Ltd, a company set up last October under the control of Llandysul rally-driver Charlie Jukes to organise this year’s Rali Ceredigion.

  Given that Rali has also entered into a three-year contract with WRC Promoter to host the UK’s round of the ERC, I asked it and the council whether this agreement implies a further approach for financial support to the council in future years. Has the council indicated to Rali what its response to any such request would be likely to be?

  Neither responded, calling into question Rali’s much vaunted enthusiasm for community engagement, and suggesting council contempt for the transparency and accountability that is supposed to be the bedrock of local government.

THE RALI Ceredigion extravaganza included high-flying local drivers as well as big names from European circuits and was followed with huge enthusiasm by thousands. 

  But fundamentally this was little more than a three-day burn-up on country roads. One that makes big claims about economic benefit for the county based on questionable assumptions on financial spin-offs, a niche sport which should never in a million years be the recipient of vast amounts of taxpayer money desperately needed to support basic public services.

  Yet Ceredigion council bends over backwards to oblige the event.

  The full cost of mounting Rali Ceredigion and securing a round of the ERC is an estimated £984.500. Yet the council is refusing to release publicly a detailed breakdown of costs drawn up for the cabinet, claiming “commercial sensitivity”.

  We’ve heard this one so often before, to the extent that hardly anyone outside the authority believes other than that this is often simply part of a ruse to squeeze out meaningful democratic oversight, control and decision-making, and to promote the authority not as a public organisation but as a quasi-business.

  So how has the council’s car-rally strong-box been filled?

  Into it has plopped, for a start, £150,000 from the UK Government Shared Prosperity Fund, which is supposed to be all about supporting local and regional economies - boosting productivity, pay, jobs and living standards by expanding the private sector.

  It would take a wild imagination to persuade anyone that helping to pay for a car-rally meets any one of those criteria.  

  I asked the council whether it continued to believe that supporting a car-rally is in line with laid-down criteria for UKSPF support? It did not reply.

  Adding to the Rali fund is £100,000 from the council itself. 

  Then there’s a further £250,000 if the event should be so unfortunate as to encounter what the authority calls “a financial shortfall”.

  In this connection, a cabinet report says Rali organisers “are forecasting that they will generate a further £500,000 from private sources this year to support the event infrastructure.”

  A tough challenge, perhaps, so was that figure achieved, or was there a shortfall? I asked Rali. They ignored the question.

  The event’s press officer, Glenn Patterson, emailed: “Rally events in the UK are not traditionally known for being profitable and many struggle because of the financial strain. Our event is no different.”

  Based on that, the public may be about to kiss goodbye to the £250,000 fallback so casually offered by the council.

  I put the same points to the council.

  The reply: “Information around the final costs of the event, the final level of contribution to be requested from the council and a post event evaluation of the economic benefits are not yet available. This information will be available in the coming weeks.”

  Time, the authority seems to think, is on its side. I doubt it.

CEREDIGION council chooses to lavish up to £500,000 on a fleeting weekend car-rally rather than invest much less than half that amount on keeping alive four indispensable village schools.

  This is the council that opts to shovel undisclosed thousands into the coffers of rally promoter Red Bull, an exceedingly wealthy Austrian energy drink company, rather secure, with £200,000 or less, the present and future well-being and contentment of hundreds of children at Borth, Llanfihangel-y-Creuddyn, Llangwyryfon and Ponterwyd.

  If the council gets its way, the schools will close next August. Everything must be done to thwart this highly damaging plan.

  Shutting them would be to play fast and loose with children’s contentment and security, and with the community cohesion that underpins both of those things. 

  The negative repercussions of wiping off the map these essential elements of local living are incalculable.

  A settled education, thriving communities and the extent of usage of the Welsh language are all at risk.

  Yet none of this seems to have occurred to a council hierarchy which has abandoned any normal ranking of priorities and principles.