AN INVESTIGATION has highlighted the cost of Welsh language laws with one Gwent council will have to spend over three-quarters of a million pounds on meeting language standards.

An investigation by the BBC’s Week In Week Out team found that Torfaen council may have to spend £868,000 on Welsh language standards.

The Welsh language standards mean that by law, services and information from all public bodies in Wales have to be provided in Welsh, as well as English.

There are 176 detailed regulations ranging from requiring reception areas to have Welsh speaking staff available, to all public documents needing to be translated into Welsh.

The deputy leader of Torfaen council, councillor Anthony Hunt told the BBC that both he and his colleagues were amazed at the figures put forward in times of austerity.

“Certainly when I received the figure about what it might cost us there was a deep intake of breath from lots of my council colleagues,” he said.

"Councils run a plethora of different services and we’ve had to make really stringent cuts in some of those areas."

Cllr Hunt added: “You’re talking of tens of millions of pounds over the last five or six years, just to keep going. If it was going to make a real difference to the language I can understand it, but my issue comes where it’s maybe more tokenistic.”

Independent Torfaen Cllr Ron Burnett said the new regulations were put in place in April.

“Too much too late," he said. "Torfaen has never been a Welsh-speaking area; it’s never going to be a Welsh-speaking area.

“Protect what you’ve got, don’t try to force it on other people that’s never going to happen.

“I’m a proud Welshman and I know we have to protect our Welsh language and our heritage but at what cost? This is a time of austerity? Can we afford it? I think not,” he added

A spokesperson for the Welsh Government said it has always been open about the fact there would be additional cost associated with implementing the standards, but those cost should not be disproportionate if local authorities had followed their Welsh language schemes over recent years.

They also said public bodies could appeal to the Welsh Language Commissioner Mari Huws if they disagreed with any of the standards.

Torfaen has submitted legal challenges to the Welsh Government over 33 regulations.

In total, 26 Public bodies have to abide by the Welsh language standards and 18 of them – including two Welsh Government Departments – have launched legal challenges.

Week in Week Out will air on BBC One Wales tonight , at 10.40pm