At
the end of a two-hour meeting last night (Monday) Plaid Cymru
councillors forming the 28-strong opposition group on Carmarthenshire
County Council unanimously resolved to present two motions of no
confidence in the Council’s leadership.
The first is a motion of no confidence in Chief Executive, Mark James.
The
second is a motion of no confidence in three members of the Council’s
Executive Board – Leader, Kevin Madge, former Leader Meryl Gravell and
Deputy Leader, Pam Palmer. These three current members of the Executive
Board were on the Board when it made decisions which have been branded
unlawful by the Wales Audit Office.
Plaid
are also calling for an extraordinary meeting of the full council and
for the Chief Executive to be suspended pending a full investigation.
Opposition group Leader, Councillor Peter Hughes Griffiths said
his group will ask for an emergency meeting of the full council, to be
held immediately and in advance of the budget-decision meeting which is
scheduled for 19th February.
Cllr
Hughes Griffiths added that Council Leader Kevin Madge should
immediately suspend the Chief Executive pending a full investigation.
Speaking after the group meeting on Monday evening, he said:
3 comments:
I hear that kevin Madge has called an extraordinary meeting after the budget meeting where only the 2 illegal payments will be discussed.
I.e. no chance of any decision on what to do about it all.
We can't go on like this with no action taken despite overwhelming evidence of misuse of public money.
I presume the next statement will be that the council will wait for the police to investigate before making a final decision.
Suspension is a neutral action, no-one loses pay etc but in a case where the most senior officers appear to have acted illegally, they cannot be allowed to continue working.
Also, the issues in the case of the Council leader are not just related to the illegal payments, but to other aspects of his administration and judgement.
Previously, all motions to council likely to embarrass the Leader have been referred back to the executive and are dismissed.
I doubt if that would be the proper action in this case with so many of the exec implicated in all this.
This is a lame duck council until we sort ourselves out and we should start a.s.a.p.
Thank you Cneifiwr for your continuous, speedy and riveting updates. Your keyboard must be red hot and you must be close to repetitive strain injury!
Plaid have rightly stated what we are all shouting for - this has NOW got to be the way forward. The CEO & EB are sounding like fools - they have lost their last shreds of dignity and respect.
When are you going to report on the budget meeting? Very strange there seems to be a silence in repect of this very important issue?
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