Caebrwyn's Trial

Next Wednesday, 13 February, will see the start of the trial involving fellow blogger Jacqui Thompson and the Chief Executive of Carmarthenshire County Council. It will take place at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, and will be heard by a judge without a jury, as is common practice these days.

As a brief reminder, the dispute dates back to the publication of a letter written by the Chief Executive to the Mad Axeman blog in which Mr James launched a highly personal attack on both Jacqui Thompson and her family. Bearing in mind that Jacqui's children have played no part in Jacqui's campaign for greater openness and transparency by the council, that was a reckless and foolish thing to have done, and unsurprisingly the legal advice received by Jacqui was that she had grounds to seek legal redress.

The whole matter could have been ended at that point in late 2011 with an apology and a settlement. Instead the Chief Executive countered with an action for defamation against Jacqui, funded by council tax payers. The council did so using powers that it had granted itself, claiming that these were "extraordinary circumstances" but without ever explaining what was so extraordinary about them.

This was an extremely unusual thing for a local authority to do, and Carmarthenshire appears to be determined to test the limits of the law where the consensus has hitherto been that government cannot sue for libel.

A victory for Mr James could have enormous consequences for the press, blogs and other media as it would open the way for any council or other branch of government to sue critics by proxy.


Whatever happens, the Welsh Government needs to act to tighten up the rules for council officers and councillors to prevent public funds from being used for pursuing (as opposed to defending) claims for defamation. If a council officer or councillor feels that they have been libelled, they would still have the same right to bring an action privately, just like everybody else.

It is sometimes argued that council officers are like the royals in that they cannot answer back and defend themselves against criticism.

Anyone who is familiar with Carmarthenshire will know that that principle has been turned on its head. Councillors who are criticised, no matter how unfairly, by the Chief Executive in public meetings have no right of reply. And members of the public who have been attacked by the Chief Executive and the council's PR machine in the press have found that the control of editorial policy exercised by County Hall in the case of some of our local papers means that they have no right of reply either.

As a result of all of this significant sums of public money have been squandered, and a threat to freedom of expression remains.

For Jacqui personally this is an extremely stressful experience, and I am sure that most of you will join me in wishing her success in what is a just cause.

Cynhadledd yn Rhydaman: Y Gymraeg a'r Cyfrifiad

Cynhadledd:  Y Gymraeg a'r Cyfrifiad, Dydd Iau, Mawrth 14eg, 2013

Gwesty'r Mountain Gate, Tycroes, Rhydaman, 

9:30 – 4 o'r gloch

Bydd y gynhadledd yn cynnig fforwm i drafod, dadansoddi a dehongli canlyniadau'r cyfrifiad o safbwynt yr iaith.

Dangosodd y canlyniadau fod heriau mawr yn ein hwynebu; yn wir bydd y ddegawd nesaf yn dyngedfennol o safbwynt diogelu dyfodol y Gymraeg fel iaith fyw yn ein cymunedau. Fel grwp ymbarel yn cynrychioli amrywiaeth eang o fudiadau sy'n  hybu a hyrwyddo'r Gymraeg ar lawr gwlad teimlwn ddyletswydd i ysgogi trafodaeth agored a chreadigol er mwyn ymateb i 'r sefyllfa hon. 

Trwy ddwyn ynghyd arbenigwyr, gwleidyddion ac ymarferwyr profiadol yn y maes, ein nod yw trafod yr heriau sy'n ein hwynebu ac i osod seiliau ar gyfer gweithredu'n gadarnhaol ac ymarferol er lles y Gymraeg.

Prif siaradwr y dydd  fydd Leighton Andrews, AC a Gweinidog dros y Gymraeg

Siaradwyr sydd eisoes wedi cadarnhau : 

Meri Huws, Comisynydd y Gymraeg

Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, Prifysgol Aberystwyth

Heini Gruffudd, Rhieni dros Addysg Gymraeg

Ellen ap Gwyn, Arweinydd Cyngor Ceredigion

Dyfed Edwards, Arweinydd Cyngor Gwynedd

Dr Martin Rhisiart, Ysgol Fusnes Prifysgol Morgannwg

Noddwyd y Gynhadledd gan y Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol

DIWEDD

Am fanylion pellach cysylltwch â: Gaynor Jones  ar 07854 171165 / gaynorjones@dathlu.org

Another "apology"

It seems that the Ombudsman for Public Services will have his work cut out in teaching Carmarthenshire County Council how to say sorry.

Readers may remember (post here) how last November a couple of Carmarthen residents appeared on a Radio Wales programme to tell listeners about the council's shoddy treatment of members of the public wishing to exercise their rights to observe the council's public meetings.

According to BBC staff who seemed to be as amazed and shocked as their guests, the council refused to take part in the programme, but sent in a statement while the programme was on air attacking Mrs Williams and Mr Thomas, accusing them of spreading untruths about the council and having "an agenda", even though, the BBC said, it had not told the council their identities.

As it happens, Mrs Williams had her cards marked when she joined a campaign to persuade the county council to make changes to the St Catherine's Walk shopping precinct some years ago. Mr Thomas, who also happens to be a town councillor in Carmarthen, has as far as Cneifiwr knows, no "previous".

To be called liars on air by an anonymous member of the council's Ministry of Truth was extremely upsetting for them both, and Mrs Williams duly made a complaint to the Ombudsman.

The Ombudsman said he was unable to pursue the complaint on the grounds that Mrs Williams could seek legal redress (in plain English, she could sue the council for defamation). However, the Ombudsman did ask the Chief Executive to reply to Mrs Williams' original letter of complaint, and this is what she received:

Dear Madam 

I refer to your letter of the 22nd November the contents of which are noted, however I write to inform you that the Council has no comment to make.

Yours faithfully

Mark James CBE

The letter had no reference number, and was clearly typed by someone who has only a vague familiarity with Microsoft Word (alignment of words) and punctuation rules.

Mrs Williams has now forwarded a copy of the letter to the Ombudsman to add to his bulging Carmarthenshire files.

For anyone in County Hall reading this, here is a brief selection of the Ombudsman's tips:

 

What is an apology?

An apology is much more than an expression of regret. It can be relatively simple – and helpful – to say sorry that someone had a bad experience. It is much harder to apologise for your mistakes or for those made by your organisation. An apology is an exchange between two people (or groups), so getting the process right is as important as saying the right things.

Not very hard, is it?

The Ombudsman's letter also sets out 7 simple tips on how to make an apology:

1.    The timing of an apology is very important. Once you find out that you have done wrong, if you delay then you may lose your opportunity to apologise.

  

2.    To make an apology meaningful, do not distance yourself from the apology and do not let there be any doubt that you are owning up to your mistake (for example, say ‘It was my fault’ rather than ‘If mistakes have been made…’).

  

3.    The language you use should be clear, plain and direct.

  

4.    Your apology should sound natural and sincere.

  

5.    Your apology should not question whether the person who has made a complaint has been harmed (for example, by saying ‘I am sorry if you were offended’).

  

6.   Your apology should not make the offence seem unimportant (for example by saying ‘no-one else has complained’).

  

7.    It is also very important that you apologise to the right person or people.

If all of that is too difficult, perhaps the Ombudsman will oblige with a Janet and John version.

How to say Sorry

Updated

Mrs Breckman has provided a copy of the "letter of  apology" which she received from the Chief Executive of Carmarthenshire County Council.dated 3 October 2012, three months after the Ombudsman published his report into the case.

The letter was addressed to Mrs Breckman only and makes no reference to Mr Eddie Roberts, her partner, although he was just as much a victim of the council's extraordinary behaviour.

After some preliminary waffle, the letter kicks off by emphasising that the complaint to the Ombudsman was only partially upheld. It goes on to say that while the erection of a second shed on the neighbouring property should have been determined by the planning committee rather than by the council's officers under general orders, the outcome would probably have been the same anyway.

Next comes a mangled attempt at saying sorry for not acting on the information provided by Mrs Breckman. The English is so strained and peculiar at this point, that it appears to have been extracted through torture:

We regret the failure to follow up the information that was provided as perhaps could have been.

Next comes the truly tricky part. What actually happened was that the council accused Mrs Breckman of falsifying and manipulating evidence.

The letter half-heartedly admits that this was the case, because there was "some limited reference"  to these accusations in correspondence and internal documents.

In the view of the Ombudsman, this gave rise to an appearance of a lack of objectivity on the Council's part, and it is very much regretted that firstly this appearance may naturally have flowed from this, and secondly that you would have found such observations on the Council's part as upsetting.

Putting aside the bizarre English once again, we know what the Ombudsman thought. What Mrs Breckman wanted to hear was what the council thought about its conduct.

Next the letter deals with the thorny subject of the council's policy on persistent complaints. Mrs Breckman was placed on the register without being told and not given an opportunity to appeal. The council justifies this by stating that "you were not given due warning that the policy would be applied to you (as recommended by the policy itself)".

It is hard to know what to make of that. Was it the policy's fault? Were the council's officers powerless to act because the policy was dictating what had to be done like a manic, out-of-control robot?

The letter concludes by saying "it remains the case that for matters to be complete that we tender our apology for those failings, and hope that these apologies are accepted".

The letter does not offer Mrs Breckman a meeting or any opportunity to ask questions, such as what does this letter actually mean?

**************************************************************


The Ombudsman for Public Services has met to discuss what progress has been made by Carmarthenshire County Council in implementing his recommendations in the Breckman case, and it seems that he is generally satisfied that the authority has taken most of the steps he outlined.

In one important point, however, the Ombudsman was less than impressed, namely the extremely reluctant apology it has given Mrs Breckman and her partner.

As a result, the Ombudsman will be providing the council with a set of guidelines on how to say sorry, something which comes very hard to a council which operates under the principle of "never admit that you are wrong, and never, ever say sorry".

Just how sorry the Council really was can be judged from a letter which Meryl Gravell wrote on behalf of the Dream Team to Carl Sergeant (minister for local government) in February last year. The letter was written after the Ombudsman had expressed frustration to the minister about the council's lack of cooperation and its attitude towards people who make complaints.

Clearly, Meryl felt that the council's procedures were absolutely fine, and that any grumblings could just be put down to a few disgruntled individuals.

Getting from there to a position of being able to admit mistakes and apologise unreservedly for them will present County Hall with one of its biggest challenges, since if the apologies are to mean anything, a wholesale change of culture will be needed.

A Literary Storm

An inevitable update (6 February 2013)

Dear Mr Ruck

Thank you for the comments you posted last night. I have published one of them, but draw the line at personal attacks on private individuals. Those in public office and people like you and me who set up soap boxes and mouth off in public are fair game on the other hand, although I am not sure why Gwyneth Lewis's seasickness, real or alleged, should be a stick to beat her with.

I have met Ms Lewis briefly and am familiar with some of her work, in particular Llofrudd Iaith. Personally I found it memorable, innovative and thought provoking. Each to his own, I suppose, but whether you like or loathe her poetry and other work, she is a unique voice in contemporary Welsh writing.

The Guardian article you refer to can be found here. Readers can decide for themselves whether those are the thoughts of a deluded intellectual inadequate.

For the record, I am very sorry to hear that you have received threats, and would certainly condemn anyone who has made them.

With kind regards

Y Cneifiwr

________________________________________________


As regular readers of this blog will know, Cneifiwr's ramblings rarely venture beyond the shenanigans at the Zoo County Hall, and forays into the world of literature have been limited to fan mail to the Great Dewi Prysor. However, news has arrived of a literary spat in Carmarthenshire featuring somebody called Julian Ruck, and now even Dyfed Powys Police have got involved.

Like me, most readers will probably have been only dimly aware of Mr Ruck if at all because of his role in the Kidwell-e Festival which was held at Meryl's Ffos Las racecourse last July. The event featured a host of literary talent, including Mary Hooper, Polly Courtney and Dougie Brimson (I've never heard of them either), and only a handful of people turned up. Some of those who did go may have thought that another of the resident writers, Adele Geras, was odds-on favourite in the 3.15.

Mr Ruck threw a fine old tantrum and blamed just about anyone and everyone before declaring that he would take his festival to England where people would be more appreciative.

Although Mr Ruck is a Swansea Jack born and bred, he takes a pretty dim view of the Welsh, as you can see from his blog where he is currently weighing in to "those people who seek a Welsh language only, RS Thomas bucolic paradise of insularity and a backward existential wasteland of introverted stupidity".

In another post he has a go at a minister of religion for speaking Welsh at a funeral. Julian didn't understand what the Reverend was saying, and so concluded that it must have been, "damn all you sinners to Hell for not speaking Welsh!"

Fittingly, Julian has a regular column in the Llanelli Star where he holds forth on the evils of the Welsh literary establishment, the "billions spent on promoting the Welsh language" (really?), and Welsh Nationalists and Welsh Labour, who are apparently all in it together.

On his blog one lengthy entry in block capitals is devoted to denouncing Gwyneth Lewis.

Someone with a lot of time on their hands, possibly a literary critic, has produced a replica of Mr Ruck's blog in which the literary colossus of Carmarthenshire is given a pseudonym which rhymes with Ruck.

The rival blog takes Mr Ruck to task for what it considers to be the low literary merit of his oeuvre and weak grasp of the fundamentals of English grammar.

Mr Ruck alleges that matters have escalated beyond blogs and "Twatter" accounts, and that he has received various threats, including suggestions that his home may be spattered with dog poo.

As a result, Mr Ruck has called upon Dai Knacker to investigate, but he also seems to be engaging in a little sleuthing himself. One of Cneifiwr's readers, a woman of impeccable character, has been contacted by someone calling himself Julian Ruck accusing her of posting messages on the *uck blog as Mrs Penn-Thomas and "The Dog Woman".

My correspondent was especially upset to be addressed by Mr Ruck as "Mrs".

Take my advice Jules. Don't mess with her.

As a family blog, any comments on this post will be subject to rigorous moderation.

The Breckman Case - more procedural voodoo

For a council so obsessed with PR, Carmarthenshire County Council's handling of the Breckman case should enter the text books as an example of how not to manage bad news.

The Ombudsman for Public Services published a damning report at the beginning of July 2012 showing how the authority had failed to enforce planning regulations and victimised the complainants over a period of years.

The extraordinary twists and turns in the story were the subject of a BBC documentary, and the press reported that the nine year battle was over now that the Ombudsman had ordered the council to pay the couple compensation and implement a number of measures to ensure that similar failings would not be repeated.

They had not reckoned with Carmarthenshire County Council.

It was clear from the start that the council's top brass hated the report, but instead of taking a deep breath and getting the matter over with, it has deliberately dragged its feet for months and gone to great lengths to prevent any discussion of the report by councillors.

Mrs Breckman's county councillor, Cefin Campbell, has tried repeatedly to raise the matter in full council, but has fallen foul of procedures which have been rigorously enforced to prevent any questions relating to matters which do not appear on the published agenda.

Since the Chief Executive is responsible for drawing up meeting agendas, there was never any likelihood that the report would find its way in to the council chamber.

Cllr Campbell then tried to raise the matter under "Any Other Business". A recent attempt to raise a question about the misuse of the council's press office in the Sainsbury's press release scandal was ruled out of order because, the Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer declared, the Council Chair had not been informed of the question ahead of the meeting.

So Cllr Campbell duly informed the Chair of his intention to ask about the Ombudsman's report before meetings of the council began. But that was ruled out of order because, in the Chief Executive's view, the matter was not urgent, even though 7 months have now passed since publication of the report.

When Cllr Campbell made it clear before the last meeting of the full council in January that he would raise the matter under AOB anyway, the Chief Executive intervened and had AOB removed from the meeting agenda.

As we know, instead of presenting the report to full council, the Executive decided that the Ombudsman's recommendation that the report should be "presented to councillors" was sufficiently ambiguous to allow it to send the matter off to the Planning Committee instead, even though the report deals with matters which go far beyond planning enforcement issues.

Not content with that, officers recommended that discussion of the report by the Planning Committee should be subject to a public interest exemption and heard behind closed doors.

It also emerged rather late that the Planning Committee was not being asked to consider the Ombudsman's report, but a doctored and watered down version of it written by the council's officers.

After 9 years of dealing with the council, Mrs Breckman was probably not surprised by any of this, but she wrote to the Chair of the Planning Committee, Cllr Anthony Jones (Lab), making it clear that, as both the principal subject and victim in the case, she felt strongly that the report should be discussed in public.

Mrs Breckman took the precaution of copying her letter to Cllr Campbell, who responded promptly, but she did not receive even the courtesy of an acknowledgement from Cllr Jones.

Meanwhile, the Ombudsman is understood to be concerned about the handling of the report and the lack of progress by the council in implementing his recommendations. A meeting has been convened to discuss this.

The Ombudsman may also want to take a close look at what happened at the Planning Committee when it came to application of the public interest test. Usually such decisions are formalities, but in controversial matters such as this when opinion is divided, it is remarkable how often the divisions occur along party lines, even though party whips are strictly forbidden.

A block vote by the "independent minded" Independents and their Labour chums in favour of chucking press and public out of the meeting might take some explaining, especially now that the Ombudsman is probably not in the best of moods when it comes to the Best Council in Wales.

At least the top brass in County Hall can congratulate themselves on one thing. Their expertise in manipulating procedures seems to be finding admirers in other Welsh councils, as Cllr Arfon Jones found recently (here) when he proposed allowing "live broadcasts" (specifically the use of Twitter) at council meetings in Wrexham.

The result was a carbon copy of the tactics deployed in Carmarthen last year when Plaid Cymru proposed allowing the public to film council meetings.

Rugby Gloom

If yesterday's game against Ireland was not depressing enough for you, imagine what it must be like if you support the Scarlets.

Off the field things are if anything even more dire. PriceWaterhouseCoopers produced a report on regional rugby last year, and if the BBC's summary of its contents is anything to go by, regional rugby is facing a grim future indeed.

Here are a few of the report's findings just for starters:

• The regions are not financially sustainable in their current form without continued support from benefactors or alternative funding sources.
• The collective funding gap has been rising.
• The economic downturn and growing disillusionment have meant that most, and in some cases all, of the support provided by wealthy benefactors is drying up.
• Poor management and poor decision making, partly because of the over-riding influence of the benefactors.
• Lack of oversight of finances and, in some cases, lack of an up to date business plan.
• Signing expensive overseas players.
• Significant additional costs incurred by the lure of participating in the Heineken Cup.

PWC went on to point out that most of the savings achieved by the clubs can be put down to the cap on players' salaries. That in itself is a double-edged sword because the regions can and are easily outspent by richer clubs in France and England.

The report also diplomatically described the Welsh clubs' targets as "ambitious" when set against past performance.

Not included in the PWC report's deliberations, it seems, was the effect which the growing success and popularity of Welsh football is having on regional rugby match attendances, something discussed on the BBC's Sport Wales the other week. Tickets to watch Swansea City are like gold dust, and attendances in Swansea and Cardiff are running at more than three times what the regional rugby clubs can pull in.

The response of the WRU and the rugby regions to all of this has been to set up a new board which will meet once a month to try to turn the Titanic round.

In Carmarthenshire it's not just club supporters who have reason to feel depressed. As we wait to find out how much extra we will have to pay in council tax this year, the County Council's financial support for the Scarlets is beginning to stand out more and more like a sore thumb as jobs are cut and services slashed.

It is well nigh impossible to work out how much all of the overt and covert subsidies to the club add up to. Just about every council event, no matter how small, is likely to find itself taking place at Parc y Scarlets, with stretched departmental budgets being raided to pay for hospitality in Llanelli. Even the annual "Welsh Learner of the Year" event (maximum of about 30 attendees) was held at the stadium last year at a time when the council was cutting back on classes.

The question of whether all these subsidies are legal under EU Competition Law appears to be a very touchy subject in County Hall.

The Chief Executive of Carmarthenshire County Council, Mark James, told councillors that legal advice on state-funded aid to the Scarlets was contained in the huge bundle of documents they were given back in 2007, but a Freedom of Information request recently made by Cllr Siân Caiach for disclosure of the legal advice was refused under the cloak of legal privilege.

Cllr Caiach wonders why, if the advice provided by an external firm of lawyers showed that everything was in order, would there be any need to conceal it from elected councillors. Could it be that the advice highlighted concerns which the council's officers have not dealt with?

Not unnaturally, Cllr Caiach also wonders whether councillors were ever actually provided with the external legal advice given the authority's refusal to disclose it now.

Sometimes it doesn't just rain, it pours.

Rali'r Cyfrif yn Aberystwyth

Daeth rhyw 500 o bobl o bob oedran i'r digwyddiad yn Aberystwyth ddoe, hanner can mlynydd yn union i'r dydd ers y protest ar Bont Trefechan ym 1963, ac roedd sawl wyneb adnabyddus yn y dorf, gan gynnwys Ellen ap Gwynne, arweinydd y Cyngor Sir.

Yn wahanol i'r rali yng Nghaerfyrddin ddwy wythnos yn ôl, felly, ac agwedd ddiystyriol arweinyddiaeth y Cyngor Sir yno. Ni ddaeth arweinydd y Cyngor Sir Kevin Madge nac unrhyw aelod arall o'r Bwrdd "Gweithredu" yn agos at y lle.

Council launches charm offensive

Motorists who parked their cars in the main mart car park in Newcastle Emlyn the other Sunday were shocked to discover that they had received a ticket when they returned. In fact, every single car parked in the council car park had been ticketed following the introduction of parking charges for Sundays.

Cneifiwr is pleased to say, rather smugly, that he was not one of those caught in the raid.

To be fair, there would probably have been no more than about a dozen fines if the average Sunday is anything to go by, but the council clearly thought it was worthwhile paying someone to travel out on a Sunday to get its message across.

Unsurprisingly people who had parked while going to chapel or church, or stopped briefly to go and buy a newspaper or a pint of milk were none too pleased, but the Council told the Carmarthen Journal (story not yet online) that rules were rules.

Fortunately the newspaper probably won't tell the town's residents about the Chief Executive's "cash advance" (in the Western Mail today: WARNING: this article contains a disturbing image), or they might get very angry indeed.

Not so many years ago car parking in this small market town was free, but as is the way with so many things, charges were introduced and have been ramped up every year ever since. Not long after charges were introduced someone rammed the parking machine with what must have been a small tank and put it out of action for a while. Luckily, the council had CCTV monitoring the car park, and the villain was given a stiff fine.

Unfortunately the spiralling cost of parking has not been matched by any improvement in maintenance of the car park. There was a short burst of pothole filling last year and the parking bay lines were re-painted, but parts of the car park regularly flood thanks to inadequate drainage, and new monster potholes are developing.

Local people who do not want to wreck their vehicles or pay parking fines have long since realised that double yellow lines in the main street mean "park here for free". The police very rarely hand out fines, and the search is on for a genuine police parking ticket to be displayed in the town's museum.

Cneifiwr has even seen anarchist drivers (e.g. lady nipping into a very expesnive frock shop) who park in the one free lane of the very narrow main road, the other having been turned into a car park, and bring the entire town to a standstill for up to half an hour. They have been given a mild ticking off and sent on their way.

Of course all this would have stopped long ago if the town's residents hadn't kicked up such a fuss about allowing the council to turn the town (population  of around 1,500) into the place with the largest concentration of supermarkets per square mile in Wales.

The council's planning officers thought that free car parking in supermarket car parks was wonderful, and they highlighted all the other benefits which would have been showered upon us in return for shutting down the pokey little independent shops.

But that was not to be. So that pint of milk you want to buy will cost you at least 30p more than at a supermarket thanks to the car parking charges, and it could cost you a whole lot more if you don't buy a ticket.

Best to park on those double yellow lines, then.

A £20,000 cash advance for the Chief Executive

News that Mark James, Chief Executive of Carmarthenshire County Council, was paid an advance of £20,000 in his capacity as Returning Officer 5 weeks before last year's council elections will have phones in the council's Ministry of Spin ringing red hot. Questions about the payment, which took place just before the end of the 2011-12 tax year, include who actually approved it.

Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM has likened this arrangement to what happened at AWEMA where the disgraced chief executive took a £9,000 advance on expected future expenses.

The revelation comes in the wake of the scandal in Labour-controlled Caerphilly Council where the chief executive authored a secret report recommending himself and other senior officers for a massive pay increase at a time when the council is cutting services, making staff redundant and imposing below inflation pay increases for the rest.

In Carmarthenshire, where we have the second most highly paid chief executive in Wales, the outlook is just as grim, as the Chief Executive himself recently warned us in a two page spread in the Carmarthen Journal. The council is also continuing to stall proposals to pay its lowest paid employees, such as school dinner ladies and cleaners, a living wage.

Plaid Cymru (see press release here) and Unison decided to query what appeared to be a £20,000 pay rise for the Chief Executive reported in the council's Statement of Accounts for 2011-12 which showed that Mr James's salary and expense allowances for the year had risen to £187,102, and that his total remuneration from the council (including our contributions to his pension pot) was £209,498.

Not included in that figure, it seems, were fees earned as returning officer in the May 2011 Welsh Assembly elections since that money comes from a central pot rather than the county council. In addition, fees earned as returning officer also count when it comes to calculating pensions. The gift which goes on giving.

What eventually emerged from the questioning was a curious agreement to pay Mr James an advance of £20,000 in respect of his fees as Returning Officer in the May 2012 local authority elections. What is more, this was just a part payment. What the full payment for running the council elections was is not yet clear.

Strangely, the payment was made immediately before the end of the 2011-12 tax year and before nominations for the council elections had closed and campaigning begun. The council told Plaid that the reason for this was that, erm, "funds were available".

With an annual salary which is roughly 9 times average earnings in Carmarthenshire, we can probably safely assume that Mr James did not need the money in a hurry to pay for an unexpectedly large gas bill, so we can only speculate why it was considered beneficial to pay the money upfront immediately before the start of a new tax year.

According to the council, the Executive Board (then headed by Meryl Gravell and her deputy Kevin Madge)  did not approve the payment as that would have involved them in election arrangements and therefore have been improper. There are certainly no references in any of the Executive Board meeting minutes for that period which would suggest that the deal was officially sanctioned.

So who approved the payment? Were senior councillors made aware of it at any point, and if not why not?

These are serious matters which go to the heart of the way this local authority is run, and they must be investigated thoroughly and independently. The Wales Audit Office, which has for so long turned a blind eye to goings-on in Carmarthenshire, must now carry out a full investigation.


For those interested in media matters, it will be interesting to see whether this story makes it into the pages of the Carmarthen Journal and Llanelli Star, especially when we recall that in the fairly recent past one reporter was "persuaded" to withdraw a Freedom of Information request on senior officer pay after the intervention of County Hall.

In whose interest?

Update 28 January

Mrs Breckman has been in touch to say the following:

My feelings are that of course it should be discussed openly in the chamber, and that all councillors are made aware of its contents.

My overwhelming anger over all of this, is not just the planning issues, they are bad enough, but that I was pilloried for telling the truth, lied about to all councillors and others, (another reason all councillors should be made aware of the seriousness of it), leaving the overriding issue one of misconduct in public office.  Of course the Ombudsman cannot and doesn't take that into consideration when making his investigations.  As we all know he can only look for and find maladministration.  
 
I am intending writing back to Carl Sargeant, asking that he reconsiders, and meets with me, as he needs a much clearer understanding from my perspective of the misconduct of certain officers and the damage they can cause to ones life.  Until he is fully acquainted with all the facts he cannot make a fair judgement on whether there needs to be a Public Inquiry.

__________________________________________________________


On 31st January the Planning Committee of Carmarthenshire County Council will meet to decide various planning applications as usual, but what is highly unusual about this meeting is the final agenda item listed only as "Outcome of Ombudsman Investigation".

Officers of the council are recommending that a public interest exemption should be applied to exclude any members of the public and press present from the discussion.

The case they will be reviewing is in fact that of Mrs Trisha Breckman and her partner Eddie Roberts who suffered serious injustice at the hands of the County Council over a period of years.

The Ombudsman's report was published in July 2012, and it will have taken the council 7 months to get round to putting it in front of a group of councillors. It is quite clear that the Ombudsman and many councillors were expecting the report to go before the full council, but senior officers within the council appear to have been hell-bent on ensuring that the report receives as little oxygen as possible.

Every trick in the book, and several not in any book, have been used to prevent open scrutiny of the report, including last week's removal of  the standard "Any Other Business" item on a meeting agenda to foil an attempt by Mrs Breckman's councillor to raise the matter in a public meeting.

Normally, it is true, reports which deal with the affairs of individuals are rightly subject to a public interest exemption. But this is not a normal report. Details of the affair and the report have been the subject of newspaper reports and a television documentary. Everybody knows the identities of the people involved, and anybody who wants a copy of the report can write to the Ombudsman to obtain one.

The usual reasons for applying an exemption do not apply in this case, and the public has a very strong interest in hearing what the Council has to say about it and what steps it is taking to ensure that nothing of the kind ever happens again.

The council's failings are not limited to planning enforcement, but include much wider failings in the way in which the authority deals with the public. That is why it should be heard by the full council in public.

By insisting that the report and the outcome are discussed behind closed doors, it is clear that what is being served here is not the public interest but that of the council's officers.

An unstunned parent writes

The Carmarthen Journal followed up its recent report on proposals to turn Ysgol y Ddwylan in Newcastle Emlyn into a Category A Welsh medium school with a second article last week under the headline "Parents stunned by school's Welsh only classes".

In the piece which follows, most of the report is taken up by comments made by a handful of the town's councillors, one of whom happens to be a parent with children at the school. Two councillors suggested that the wisest thing would be to wait for the consultation to begin, while a third argued that,

I think they [the school] will fail a lot of children in the local area.

If we accept that argument, existing category A schools in the area - the overwhelming majority of schools here - must all be failing children. Clearly that is nonsense.

One parent who also happens to be a member of the Town Council does not add up to "stunned parents", does it?

It seems that any formal consultation could be some way off, so the Journal  may struggle to sustain this level of shrill scaremongering.

Meanwhile, it would not be too difficult for the Journal to find parents who welcome proposals which will give more children an opportunity to grow up with skills and advantages most of their parents do not possess.

Thought for the Day: It is the children who are being denied a bilingual education who are being failed.

What's On at the Odeon This Week

Why not come and try some of our tempting treats as you settle in for the feast of filmic fun we have lined up for you this week?

On special offer this week is the Shirgar Burger, washed down with a bladder-busting 10 litre bucket of Coke and a bin bag of diabolo diabetes-enducing popcorn. All for just £86.83.

Muppet Mayhem

Fozzy Bear has been given the lead in the latest production of the Muppet Show, and Miss Piggy is plotting her revenge. Little do they realise that Kermit is really running things......

Return of the Mummy

A fumbling tourist accidentally stumbles into an ancient tomb and the Curse of Cwmoffit is brought horrifically back to life. The Mummy takes dominion over the starving peasants and enslaves them in a massive state-of-the-art Pyramid Regeneration Programme.

Cwmenders

The Queen Vic meets Y Deri. Kat, the buxom tattoed landlady has run off with bad-boy businessman Garry Monk, and all hell breaks loose. Pat (the one with the big earrings) rises from the grave and joins forces with Peggy Mitchell to move in on Cwmderi where, incredibly, Dai Sgaffalde has been running the pub and alienating the customers. Watch Peggy utter that immortal line, "Get aht of my pub".

Arsenic and Old Lace

A farcical black comedy in which a man has to deal with his mad, murderous family, which includes two spinster aunts who have taken to bumping people off with a glass of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine and "just a pinch" of cyanide.

I, Claudius

The Empire totters as the populace groans under the weight of taxation and the slaves are growing restless. Thanks to an unbelievable twist of fate, the hapless Kevius Claudius has ended up as Emperor, but his bloodthirsty mother Flavia and her sister have the knives out. Featuring a brief cameo role by Robbie Savage as Flavia's favourite gladiator and Siân Caiach (Vanessa Redgrave) as Cassandra, Prophetess of Doom.

Carry On Matron!

A junior doctor has enticed one of the nurses (Barbara Windsor) into his rooms, as Bernard Bresslaw finds himself running St Hopeless. Michael Howard plays the late Kenneth Williams as Sir Bernard Cutting, the Senior Registrar, and Matron and her battle-axe sidekick (played by Joan Sims) decide to take control of the situation.

Meuryn Newydd Talwrn y Beirdd

Y Prifardd Peter Hughes Griffiths yw Meuryn newydd Talwrn Y Beirdd.

Mae BBC Cymru wedi cyhoeddi mai fe fydd yn olynu Meryl oedd yn Feuryn am 82 flynedd.


This last feature has been cancelled by Order of the Chief Executive.

Big names, empty shops

A frequent criticism of Carmarthenshire County Council, and not just in this blog, is its infatuation with brand names, chain stores and supermarkets when it comes to retail development. St Catherine's Walk in Carmarthen is full of them, and you could be in any shopping precinct in England if it weren't for the Welsh accents. The same is true of the new East Gate complex in Llanelli, and the council explained recently that there was a preference for big retail names because they offer landlords the prospect of long-term stability and security. Helped along, of course,  by all sorts of special deals and free advertising by the Council, which continuously promotes names such as Nandos, Harvester, Costa Coffee and the rest through its PR machine.

You have to wonder how true this argument is following the collapse of Woolworths, Jessop's, Clinton Cards, HMV and other big names. In this part of the world Trade Secret and Seconds Ahead, chains which both sold discounted clothing, have also gone bust leaving gaping holes in the High Street.

And it's not just the ones which are going to the wall. Recently H Samuel and Dorothy Perkins announced that they were pulling out of Llanelli after many years of trading in the town. It seems that endless contractor work and disruption in the town have played their part in the decisions.

Of course small businesses shut up shop too, but they tend not to leave massive gaping holes in the High Street when they go, and when you look around our towns, it is often precisely the small, local retailers who seem to be hanging on in there when the multiples give up.

As often as not, they survive despite rather than because of the Council and its visionary regeneration schemes.

But it's not all doom and gloom as far as the big names are concerned. Some are still expanding, as we can see here:

EJ Hales ‏@ej_hales

Deal exchanged at Unit 7b, Eastgate, Llanelli to Ladbrokes. Only a few units remain! Contact Owen Cahill for further information. 

That little announcement followed hard on the heels of news that the developer was seeking change of use for the empty Unit 7 from A1 (shops) to A2 (Finance and Professional Services) due to lack of demand.

Cllr Pam Palmer, Deputy Leader of the Council and Independent supremo, was recently in one of her letter-writing moods as she railed against advertising by betting companies on the telly.

It will be interesting to see what she has to say about Ladbrokes opening up in the shiny new family-oriented East Gate shoppertainment complex.

What next? A pawnbroker, a massage parlour and a slot machine arcade perhaps?

U-turns, U-bends, Blacklists, Buses and an amazing Omission: January's Council Meeting

Cneifiwr and Caebrwyn were unable to attend this month's twice delayed meeting of the full council, but thanks to the miracle of digital technology and a secret squirrel (no, not the cute fluffy one belonging to the Council Chair), here is a quick run-down on what we all missed.  

Cllr Glynog Davies (Plaid) complained that his question last month to Chief Executive Mark James about the council's blacklisting of the South Wales Guardian was not in the minutes. A proposed amendment to the minutes to make them reflect what actually happened in the meeting was rejected in a vote.

Linda Evans (Plaid) once again raised the issue of bus services which are set to be cut drastically from April this year as a result of a 25% cut in the grant, and local authorities will lose control over bus subsidies to a new regional consortium. Colin Evans (Lab) responding as a member of the Executive Board agreed that the situation was bad.

And with that, we were back to the council's plans to hive off public toilets to community councils. Thanks to an overwhelming response from the victims community councils to the County Council's generous offer, any community councils which take up the offer will now receive 75% of the cost of running the toilets in Year One, 50% in the second year and 25% in the third year. Any community councils which were daft enough to accept the County Council's original offer will not receive the additional funding. Peter Hughes Griffiths described this as a shambles. He could have called it a U-turn in a U-bend.

Cllr Alun Lenny raised the decay of the old town centre of Carmarthen around King Street. Were there any plans to regenerate the old heart of the town? Deputy Chief Executive Chris Burns gave a non-committal response.

Cllr Lenny went on to ask about the Living Wage. Swansea, a Labour council, had agreed to pay a living wage, what about Carmarthenshire? Kev replied, "At the end of the day, as I've said before..(turn to page 94)..." In other words, "No".

Cefin Campbell raised the decline in the number of Welsh speakers shown in the census. He praised the Rally outside County Hall last Saturday (the one which the council's officers did not want). Mark James replied that the Language Commissioner would be setting up a committee to see what could be done. The ball was safely in the long grass.

Cllr Campbell went on to welcome the Welsh Government's u-turn on council tax benefits. 19,000 people in Carmarthenshire would benefit from this decision, and he asked Kev to offer congratulations to Rhodri Glyn Thomas (Plaid) for his hard work in persuading Carwyn & Co in Cardiff to change course. Kev agreed that Rhodri Glyn deserved congratulations.

Darren Price mischievously asked if there would be any changes in the council's leadership following the defection of Labour's Theressa Bowen to the Independents. His question went unanswered.

Cllr Price also raised the development of a new business park at Cross Hands West, which he supported, but he wanted to know what was being done about council officers who had been found to be acting politically. What was happening to the Ombudsman's investigation into the matter? The Chief Executive replied that he did not know, and it was up to the Ombudsman.

Deian Harries pointed out that car park charges had gone up again, and that people from Tycroes were now shopping in Pontarddulais instead of Ammanford. Cllr Colin Evans blamed the decision on the old council (the Independent-Labour coalition). He agreed that the new Labour-Independent coalition should take another look at it.

Just before the meeting closed, Cefin Campbell rose to say that he had not seen the Ombudsman's report on the Breckman case. Six months had passed, and as the local member he wanted to know what was happening.

Mark James replied that there was no Any Other Business on the agenda this month, and he was right!

Normally, in fact invariably, the meeting agenda ends with the following wording:

ANY OTHER ITEMS OF BUSINESS THAT BY REASON OF SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCE, THE CHAIR DECIDES SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS A MATTER OF URGENCY, PURSUANT TO SECTION 100B(4)(B) OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972.

For reasons which we can only speculate about, the wording had unaccountably been left off the published agenda this time, and so, the Chief Executive purred, no questions could be taken.

Cllr Campbell had apparently taken the trouble following the last show-down about emergency items to speak to the Chair before the meeting to indicate that he wanted to ask a question. 

As usual, however, the Chief Executive had the final word, and the meeting was closed.