The Carmarthen Journal reports that the Executive Board of Carmarthenshire County Council decided not to implement proposed increases in pitch fees for its sports grounds in the south of the county this year when it met to consider a mammoth agenda of reports and proposals on Monday (see previous post).
The council says it will now go out and consult with the sports clubs affected, many of which warned that the dramatic increases in charges would force them to close.
The Journal's report quotes both Council Leader, Kevin Madge (Lab), and Colin Evans (Lab), whose portfolio includes grounds maintenance.
It is not clear from the report whether Meryl Gravell (Ind) was present. Her portfolio includes sport, and she has had remarkably little to say about the row which has been rumbling on for several months.
Rather less reticent was Pam Palmer (Ind) whose rather vague portfolio of responsibilities includes 'Community Planning' but not planning, police liaison, bio-diversity and sustainability. Unlike Meryl, Pam does not represent a ward in the south of the county; in fact she is the only member of the 10 member Executive Board to represent a ward in the north of the county. So perhaps she was speaking as 'Youth Ambassador' (yes, really) when she lashed out.
"The status quo is not an option", she said, and people could not go "shouting and screaming" when things change next year.
Meryl could not have put it better. In the eyes of the two veteran Independent leaders any form of dissent or criticism from the public, whether it's fee increases of up to 2,000% or school closures, is just the rabble waving placards and screaming. As Meryl has said before, councillors who listen to this sort of thing are just weak.
That's local democracy for you.
7 comments:
Those in power are going to promise anything and everything to secure votes. Those out of power are going to promisr anything and everything to secure botes. Thus it alway wax and will remain.
All we can do is vote for the least worst option based on past performance and current behaviour.
About one thing Poisonous Pam is right - the status quo is not an option. Change is needed, but not to the charges for playing fields. People should feel wholly justified in screaming and shouting at the way the Council has frittered away money, bolstering the Chief Exec's pension here, giving up cash to the Scarlets there, and incurring horrendous costs in going about their job in unlawful ways. As Deputy Leader Pam should realise that she commands little confidence when she has helped to preside over these fiascos.
Sorry for the spelling mistakes above - blame my Ipad, not me!
Anyone recall the song "Pam's Moods" by Ian Drury and the Blockheads? Here are the lyrics:
When me and Pam
Are hand in hand
We make a lovely pair
But when we fight
Her awful spite Is more than I can bear
She gives me the business, I loose all self control
The curse of fifty witches making wormwood of my soul
A life of broken china and sneering yellow hate
Ooh, derision and contusion and things that nausiate
Ruptures of the psyche,
Vexation in the head
Poison in my coffee and needles in my bed
Mischief in the midriff, tensions of the spine
Oooh, underhand aspersions that really are unkind
Pams moods (yeah, come on now)
Pams moods Pams moods Pams moods
An abject little toady her scolding makes of me
Ooooh, why is she so bitter every time we disagree?
Pams moods Pams moods Pams moods Pams moods Pams moods Pams moods Pams moods Pams moods
Redhead, I will treasure that comment for years to come.
If you want an image to conjure with, you might consider the Lennon and McCartney lyrics to "Polythene Pam":
Well you should see Polythene Pam
She's so good-looking but she looks like a man
Well you should see her in drag dressed in her polythene bag
Yes you should see Polythene Pam
Yeah yeah yeah
Get a dose of her in jackboots and kilt
She's killer-diller when she's dressed to the hilt
She's the kind of a girl that makes the "News of the World"
Yes you could say she was attractively built
Yeah yeah yeah
I say no more.
With that horrific image burned on our collective consciousness, I wonder if there are any more Pam lyrics out there?
For Welsh speakers there was a pretty dire, untranslatable and politically incorrect joke on the Welsh Whisperer's show on Radio Beca recently:
C Be' ti'n galw merch boeth o Tseina?
A. Pam Lai.
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