Suspending disbelief - Updated

Update 27 March

The South Wales Guardian cover this story here.

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Something which has had a lot of people scratching their heads for the last few weeks is what exactly is the status of Mark James, Chief Executive of Carmarthenshire County Council, following his decision voluntarily to "step aside" from his duties.

A useful rule of thumb when it comes to the top brass in this council is that if you think you smell a rat, there is almost certainly a rodent with whiskers close by. Back in the middle of February this blog noted that Mr James had not been suspended, but was merely "stepping aside" - whatever that meant. He has been on full pay ever since and is likely to remain on full pay at home for many more weeks and months to come.

The arrangement, which looked then and looks now like a shabby compromise deal to keep the Labour-Independent coalition together, means that despite being at the centre of a police investigation, Mr James will act as returning officer in the European elections in May as if nothing had happened.

It now emerges that there are no restrictions on meeting or communicating with council staff, and Mr James continues to have access to the council's IT network. Officially he is still chief executive, and Dave Gilbert is still just deputy chief executive, and not acting chief executive.

Earlier today the Minister for Local Government in Cardiff, Lesley Griffiths, confirmed in the Senedd that Mr James had not been suspended, and a statement was read out from council leader, Kevin Madge, saying that Mr James was no longer carrying out his duties. Welcome to the Carmarthenshire twilight zone.

There is no provision for any of this in the council's constitution under which officers are either suspended or carrying out their duties as normal, and as Unison and numerous members of staff have pointed out, under circumstances such as these any other employee would have been escorted from the building and suspended.

Meanwhile in Westminster, Jonathan Edwards MP has once again raised his concerns about Mr James's role as returning officer in the May elections. He was told that the situation was being monitored.

In other news another strand in the council's recently implemented budget has unravelled with the announcement that plans to scrap trade union facilitation time (voted through without a murmur by the Labour and Independent councillors) has now been suspended.

Unison has run a strong campaign and gained a lot of public support on the issue, and no doubt we will shortly be told by Kevin Madge that this is more evidence of the council's policy of listening to people - as distinct from the policy in place when the budget was approved in the teeth of opposition a few weeks ago.

With the Carmarthenshire branch of Unison calling on Unison in Wales to withdraw all support from the Labour group on the council until such time as secondments were reinstated, a more likely explanation would be that someone in Cardiff tapped Kev on the shoulder.