TALKS to change the running of Monmouthshire County Council's leisure, tourism, culture and youth services have progressed after councillors met yesterday.

A full business case will now be developed to offer four alternatives of delivery in a bid to make services more "self-reliant and resilient" while staying within budget.

The decision comes as the council looks to counter an estimated cash shortfall of more than half a million pounds by the year 2020/21.

Council leader Peter Fox underlined the need for change, as well as highlighting further financial constraints put on the council by the Welsh Government.

"We have to find other ways to do things in this authority, we are so low funded compared with everywhere else in Wales," said Cllr Fox.

"I was at a rural forum last week of authorities in similar positions, and we’re seeing that it really difficult to provide services in rural communities and make them sustainable.

"That is a massive pressure and that’s why we’re trying to put a lot of pressure on the Welsh Government to realign their funding to address the pressures we have in rural communities.

"That's really important for the future of the services which we want to sustain in rural communities.

"We don't want our communities falling apart, we have to find alternatives."

The council appointed an independent firm, Anthony Collins Solicitors, to offer viable alternatives which help to retain money while also ensuring the services remain up and running.

The options are: to do nothing, to keep the services in-house and make necessary changes or to take a more radical step of moving the services out of council control to a third party or by setting up what is known as an Alternative Delivery Model (ADM), such as a trust.

Chief officer for enterprise Kellie Beirne described the full business case as the "first rung on the ladder", and that the next stage of discussions will allow councillors to go into further details such as costs, benefits and risks.

Any future decision will impact leisure, fitness and outdoor education services as well as countryside services, tourism marketing and events and management and marketing of Caldicot Castle, Tintern Old Station and Shire Hall, Monmouth.

The services currently employ 441 staff and have generated £17m income over the last four years.

They have also generated £1.65m of savings but according to the report being debated by councillors yesterday there are 'no more efficiencies' to be made.