Wednesday 26 February 2014

Council Crisis: The end of the road?

The South Wales Guardian speculates (here) that Kevin Madge's stint as leader of Carmarthenshire County Council could be about to come to an end as D-Day looms.

Councillors will vote tomorrow on a motion of no confidence in him, Meryl Gravell and Pam Palmer. Together they have presided over the erosion of democracy in Carmarthenshire, hidden behind a wall of secrecy and been responsible for decisions which have brought shame and disgrace on our council.

All the indications are that the vote will be very close, and support for Kevin Madge is believed to be crumbling.

The votes tomorrow are likely all to be recorded to allow people to see where their individual councillors stand. As Jonathan Edwards told the Guardian, "there will be no hiding place for those councillors that vote to ignore public sentiment and keep the regime in place".

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, there are lots of hiding places for dodgy councillors since the Standards Boards were eroded by this government.

You can be a convicted benefit thief and still keep your seat if your punishment is less than 13 weeks in jail (Devon)
http://www.middevongazette.co.uk/week-sentence-means-benefit-cheat-Tiverton/story-20630242-detail/story.html

and you can say hateful things about disabled people and only public (not council) pressure can force you to resign (Cornwall, be re-elected and then resign again:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-23251544

A planning lawyer once said: the further you get away from Westminster, the more like the wild west it becomes.

Sadly, this seems so.

Anonymous said...

I can't get the English subtitles (bear with me, I am in England!) not even by clicking on the upper right thing that usually gives subtitles on iPlayer. Any idea what to do or do I have to learn Welsh as I would dearly love to hear what these creeps have to say!

Sentinel said...

Having some inside knowledge about Carmarthenshire County, I can say that the veil of secrecy rests not only with Kevin Madge, Meryl Gravell and Pam Palmer, but is probably endemic throughout each and every Local Authority in Wales, indeed the whole of the U.K.


The department I once worked for, was run by some characters who were cast in the same mould as Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan. Their path to promotion was probably through nepotism, sycophancy and cronyism, rather than the ability to lead and manage.

If you aren't in certain cliques, you've got no chance of getting on, no matter how talented or industrious you are.

Those who do gain promotion often have high academic qualifications, but few if any have any ability to properly lead and manage their workforce.

There are many at sit at their desks for eight hours, who achieve and do little. Some managers and section leaders do nothing to remedy these problems. Some members of staff are ill disciplined and often adopt a laissez faire attitude.

At the other end of the scale a number of senior managers adopt an autocratic style of management and issue unreasonable demands on the few that actually do work.

Friends who work in neighbouring Local Authorities relate similar accounts.

Those who raise concerns are not listened to and are often bullied or ridiculed by their managers. Many members won't speak out because they are frightened about losing their jobs.

As for the whistle blowing system; its little better than useless as concerns are investigated internally.

What is really needed are independent investigations, perhaps by the Ombudsman. Only then can we be assured of a likelihood of fairness, impartiality and an increase in transparency.

Anonymous said...

Nice to meet you Cneifiwr.
And hearing Darren Price defend Swansea was fun too!
Tomorrow's EGM will be a very interesting watch .....but no way should local government come to this sort of shoot out at the OK coral.
Lets hope some semblance of dignity and public service is restored by the outcome.

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puCo9EN0T8A

Anonymous said...

I HAVE JUST WATCHED LAST NIGHTS BYD AR BEDWAR. WHAT A FANTASTIC PROGRAMME. IT SHOULD BE REQUIRED WATCHING FOR ALL COUNCILLORS WHO PLAN TO ATTEND TOMORROWS MEETING.

CAN I APPEAL TO THE PRODUCERS OF THE PROGRAMME TO DO AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION AND AIR IT AT PEAK VIEWING TIME BECAUSE IF IT WENT OUT TO A WIDER AUDIENCE THERE WOULD BE INSURRECTION.

IT REMINDS ME OF THE DYING DAYS OF ANGLESY BEFORE THE COMMISSIONERS WENT IN.

COUNCILLORS - DO YOUR DUTY !!!

Anonymous said...

I thought Gwyn Loader, the reporter on 'Y Byd ar Bedwar' did a fantastic job and he is to be commended. The farce cannot go on for much longer.

County Hall Spy said...

The most shocking thing I saw on Y Byd Y Bedwar is that Kev is trusted to move his own traffic cone out of the way to park. I'm amazed he had the ability to be honest.

Anonymous said...

Kev is not as lucky as the big Chief. He apparently has it moved for him!