Diversionary tactics - a letter to the Editor

Here is one of the letters to the editor of the Carmarthen Journal which did not make it in to the paper this week.

 

 

Dear Editor

Chief Executive Mark James was certainly right about one thing when he predicted in his letter (Setting the record straight, 7 March 2012) that his intervention would spark more correspondence.

Let us remember that this all began when Lesley Williams wrote to object to the use of public money to pay for a libel action being brought by Mr James against blogger Jacqui Thompson. That was followed by an attack from Cllr Clive Scourfield in which he sought to deflect attention from the case by bringing up the history of the St. Catherine's Walk development, and now Mr James has used allegations about the St. Catherine's Walk development to make another personal attack on Mrs Williams.

The point Mrs Williams was making remains valid. The council's ruling Executive Board has given a blank cheque to Mr James to allow him to pursue a libel case. Cases of this kind often cost hundreds of thousands of pounds or even in excess of a million pounds. At the same time, the council run by Cllr Meryl Gravell and Mr James is making cuts to all kinds of services, including for example, £30,000 off the cost of providing respite holidays for disabled children.

It is also the case that Carmarthenshire has ignored guidance given by the Welsh Government not to use public funds in this way.

At a meeting of the full council this week one councillor tried to raise the issue, but was prevented from speaking by the Chair. No debate or discussion by councillors of this very questionable use of public money has been allowed, and it is clear from the letters written by both Cllr Scourfield and Mr James that they do not wish to see the subject aired in the pages of your newspaper either.

Yours etc.