THE scale of almost a decade of savage austerity cuts to local communities in Wales has been exposed in a study published by public service union Unison today.

Youth centres and libraries are among the victims of widespread closures forced on Welsh councils, which have been stripped of £1.6 billion in funding.

The cuts have cost 28,100 local-authority jobs and brought council services to crisis point, according to Unison’s study, based Freedom of Information requests to Wales’s 22 local authorities, of which 20 responded.