Counting the Cost of Mr James

The decision by Carmarthenshire County Council's Labour-Independent leadership to fight the Wales Audit Office and employ the services of Mr Timothy Kerr QC to defend the council's unlawful payments to chief executive Mark James was always going to be expensive, and now the bills are coming in.

Information obtained by Plaid Cymru this week via the Freedom of Information Act confirmed that on top of the £55,000 of payments deemed ‘unlawful’ by the independent Auditor, the Council has racked up a bill of £15,000 for the legal services of QC Tim Kerr.  Not known yet are the costs of Mr Kerr’s attendance and services in the council’s extraordinary meeting on 27th February as this has not yet been billed.

If that was not bad enough, a meeting of the Carmarthenshire Council’s Audit Committee today (Friday 28th March) was informed that the authority would be facing an additional bill from the Wales Audit Office for its damning public interest reports and their associated costs.  This bill, the Wales Audit Office said, could be in the in the region of £70,000.

Member of Parliament Jonathan Edwards said Carmarthenshire residents are paying through the nose for the ‘unlawful’ actions of the Labour party running the county council.  His Assembly Member colleague Rhodri Glyn Thomas said the severity of the bill is a direct result of the council leadership’s attempts to challenge the auditor’s findings.

It is worth relaying Rhodri Glyn Thomas's comments in full:

“It would be fair to say that had the council leadership accepted the Auditor’s findings many months ago instead of engaging expensive legal teams at public expense, then the Wales Audit Office may not have needed to produce the two damning reports it did.

“I would therefore suggest that this extra £70,000 bill is a direct result of the council leadership’s attempts to challenge the auditor.  The consequences of the unlawful payments will cost more than the unlawful payments themselves.

“It seems the Labour party has not thought for one second about the cost to county taxpayers.  The council leadership has been more interested in covering its own back and trying to defend the indefensible.

“Plaid Cymru is on the side of Carmarthenshire residents who are fed up to the back teeth with the council leadership wasting public money.”

Cyngor Sir Gâr a'r Iaith Gymraeg - Cyfle i greu hanes

Wedi trafod yr heriau sy'n wynebu'r iaith yn Sir Gaerfyrddin am flwyddyn, cyhoeddodd Gweithgor y Cyfrifiad dan gadeiryddiaeth Cefin Campbell ei adroddiad terfynol yr wythnos hon.

"Mae’r iaith Gymraeg wedi bod yn rhan annatod o fywyd cymunedau Sir Gâr ers canrifoedd ond y tristwch yw ei bod hi bellach yn diflannu’n araf fel tywod mân rhwng ein bysedd", yn ôl y rhagair. "Credwn.... fod yr adroddiad hwn yn cynnig cyfle i’r Cyngor Sir i greu hanes. Byddai mabwysiadu’r adroddiad hwn yn arwydd bod y Cyngor o ddifrif ynglŷn ag adfer y Gymraeg."

Derbyniodd aelodau'r gweithgor bob un o'r argymhellion yn unfrydol, ac mae hynny'n dyst i arweinyddiaeth fedrus Cefin Campbell. Bydd Bwrdd Gweithredol y Cyngor (h.y. y cabinet) yn trafod yr adroddiad mewn cyfarfod ddydd Llun.

Ymhlith yr argymhellion niferus mae:

• cynyddu darpariaeth addysg cyfrwng Cymraeg trwy symud ysgolion cynradd ac uwchradd ar hyd y continwwm iaith;
• cynyddu’r defnydd o’r Gymraeg o fewn y Cyngor Sir a dwyieithogi ymhellach gweinyddiaeth fewnol y Cyngor gyda’r nod o weinyddu’n bennaf trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg gydag amser;
• cynnig bod Llywodraeth Cymru'n grymuso'r Bil Cynllunio a TAN20 i sicrhau bod yr iaith Gymraeg yn cael ei hystyried fel rhan annatod o'r broses cynllunio;
• cynnig bod y Cyngor Sir yn newid ei bolisi tai fforddiadwy er mwyn sicrhau "argaeledd uwch o fewn datblygiadau tai";
• cynigion i fynd i’r afael â’r llif cyson o bobl ifanc yn gadael y sir trwy fynd ati i greu cyfleoedd gwaith a swyddi lleol er mwyn galluogi ein pobl ifanc i aros yn yr ardal.

Dyma adroddiad arloesol a radical, felly, a bydd pob un o'r argymhellion yn her i'r Cyngor cyfan. Ym milltir sgwâr y Cneifiwr, er enghraifft, bydd unrhyw gais i newid statws ieithyddol yr ysgolion yn gwylltio lleiafrif gwrth-Gymraeg sy wedi dod i'r casgliad bod addysg ddwyieithog yn niweidiol i'w plant.

Nid oes modd newid pethau dros nos, ac does neb yn disgwyl hynny, ond mae'r adroddiad yn hynod o amwys o ran gosod amserlen. Bydd rhaid newid "dros gyfnod o amser" a'r gobaith yw y bydd y Cyngor yn gweinyddu trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg "gydag amser". O brofiad, mae yna le i amau y bydd arweinyddiaeth y Cyngor yn derbyn yr argymhellion gyda gwên cyn llusgo ei thraed a rhwystro newid. Ond newid sydd eisiau, a newid sylfaenol ym meddylfryd yr awdurdod.

Bydd hi'n hanfodol, felly, bod y Cyngor yn sefydlu pwyllgor parhaol i fonitro gweithrediad yr argymhellion.

Braidd yn siomedig hefyd yw ymateb y Gweithgor i bolisïau recriwtio'r Cyngor. Dylai'r awdurdod "gynnal adolygiad cynhwysfawr o swyddi’r Cyngor fesul adran er mwyn adnabod swyddi lle ddylai’r Gymraeg fod yn hanfodol. Dylid canolbwyntio yn y lle cyntaf ar swyddi sy’n darparu gwasanaeth uniongyrchol i’r cyhoedd".

A fydd modd cymreigio'r Cyngor o'r gwaelod i fyny? Y prif-weithredwr a'i swyddogion uwch sy'n gosod naws y Cyngor, nid y rhengoedd is. Cafodd Mark James ei benodi yn 2001 a dywedodd wrth y Western Mail,

"I am looking forward to working in Wales again and having an opportunity to learn the Welsh language which is so central to life in Carmarthenshire."

Erbyn hyn mae'n gallu dweud "Bore da". Er bod "sgiliau cyfathrebu yn y Gymraeg" yn "hanfodol" mewn sawl swydd, mae'r Cyngor yn dal i recriwtio ymgeiswyr di-Gymraeg iddyn nhw ar yr amod eu bod nhw'n mynychu cwrs. Yn union fel Mr James.

Wedi dweud hynny, mae'r adroddiad yn llawn gwybodaeth a syniadau adeiladol, ac mae'n debyg mai dyma fydd y cyfle olaf i'r Cyngor wrth-droi'r dirywiad yn Sir Gaerfyrddin.

Llongyfarchiadau mawr i Cefin Campbell a'r Gweithgor, felly.

Suspending disbelief - Updated

Update 27 March

The South Wales Guardian cover this story here.

______________________

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.

Hereditary Socialism - More on Stephen Kinnock

Stephen Kinnock's selection as Labour candidate in Aberafan at the next election has attracted less than flattering attention in the Danish press, whereas the response from the mainstream UK media has been decidedly muted.

Michael Bjerre, writing in Berlingske, manages to capture the sense of resignation and powerlessness felt by many locals as he spoke to people in the Working Men's Social Club:

"It doesn't matter what we think", said one. "In the case of Stephen Kinnock, it was decided at the top - by the party in London and the union - that it was him they want to see elected."

Another man, aged 69, said he was the third generation in his family always to have voted Labour, "but I don't think for a minute that we'll see him again once he's been elected. He's not from round here".

The union concerned is Community, headed up by General Secretary Roy Rickhuss who was elected unopposed in January 2014 (no, I'd never heard of him either). Rickhuss is a member of Labour's National Constitutional Committee, and Kinnock secured the union's backing.

So ordinary voters can only look on as they watch a carve-up of their constituency by party and union bosses, with strings being pulled from the House of Lords.

Stephen Kinnock, we learn elsewhere, set up some sort of home for himself in the constituency a few weeks ago (alongside his homes in Copenhagen and London) and has been busy talking to the BBC:

Vaughan Roderick ‏@VaughanRoderick 1h

BBC News - Stephen Kinnock to be 'truly active' if elected Aberavon MP http://www.live.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-26705031 

The BBC has dutifully reparroted Kinnock Junior's spin, leaving it to the Danish press to wonder exactly how he intends to represent his constituency. He told Berlingske that he planned to "live and work" in the constituency. 

The paper points out that is the sort of promise British parliamentary hopefuls make, and that it normally means spending weekends in their constituency and the rest of their time in London. Does that mean, Berlingske wonders, that Denmark will find itself being governed on a regular basis from South Wales, with Helle Thorning-Schmidt making the long journey from Copenhagen with the children to see her husband at weekends? 

Or will constituents wanting to get in touch with their MP find that their best hope is getting a pass for the BA business class lounge at Heathrow?

Another aspect of Kinnock's private life which has attracted considerable attention is the decision he made with his wife to send their eldest daughter to a fee-paying school. This has been covered by the Western Mail, the Left Futures blog and the decidedly un-left leaning Guido Fawkes.

Sending children to be educated in the private sector is just as controversial for Danish Social Democrats as it is for British Labour politicians, and Kinnock's first response was to react with a combination of bluster and contempt at such disgraceful and misleading suggestions.

Within days he was having to apologise for misleading the press on the matter. The fees he and his wife pay to send their daughter to school turned out to be twice as much as he had previously said.

Kinnock argues that the school, which they chose for "private reasons", is not like Eton or Harrow. True enough, but then there are no Danish equivalents of Eton or Harrow for Kinnock to send his children to. Berlingske notes coolly that in his interviews Kinnock downplayed the fact that the Ingrid Jespersen Gymnasieskole is one of the most sought after private schools in Copenhagen, while trying to give the impression that it was really just like a normal state school.

Labour supporters may be surprised to hear that "Gymnasieskole" translates as grammar school.

Back in Wales, Aberavon has one of the highest pecentages of children living in poverty in the country.

Jyllands Posten, like Berlingske, Børsen and Politiken a serious daily newspaper (just imagine that - a small county not much bigger than Wales which manages to sustain a clutch of high quality daily newspapers!), provides a handy run-down on Stephen Kinnock's biographical details to date.

It includes the following summary of developments concerning his tax affairs:

• In 2009 the Danish tax authorities investigated his tax status because of his job in Switzerland.
• The Copenhagen tax office approved his tax payments in September 2010, but there were accusations subsequently that Kinnock had been given favourable treatment, according to tabloid daily BT.
• Details of the tax affairs of Stephen Kinnock and his wife, Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, were leaked to the press. A commission has been investigating the leaks.
• The commission has also been looking into whether ministers, special advisers or other officials have been involved in handling the affair. A report is expected in the autumn.

After Michael Sheen's bravura performances as Tony Blair and Jesus, is Port Talbot's most famous son now preparing to re-enact the rise and rise of Stephen Kinnock?

Burry Inlet Coal Gasification - Public Meeting

A public meeting is to be held at the Gorseinon Institute on Tuesday, 25 March at 7.15 p.m. to discuss plans for a major coal gasification project under the Burry Inlet (see previous post here). 

Guest speakers are Jill Evans, the Plaid Member of the European Parliament, and Blaise Bullimore, Carmarthen Bay and Estuaries European Marine Site Officer.

Jill Evans has said that there are huge concerns about the plans in the area, and she has a strong track record on campaigning on the environment, reducing Wales' dependence on fossil fuels and developing an energy policy for Wales which puts Welsh interests first.

 

From spelt rolls and caffe latte to sulphur - Stephen Kinnock

Stephen Kinnock was yesterday selected as Labour candidate for Aberafan, and the BBC and other mainstream UK media sources have all played a very straight bat in their reports, recording only his selection, a few quotes from a press release thanking the local party for their support and the usual promises to stand up for local people. Not reported by the BBC, Guardian, Western Mail, South Wales Evening Post, etc. was a claim from a New Statesman journalist that Kinnock Junior squeaked home by just one vote:

George Eaton ‏@georgeeaton 15h

Stephen Kinnock selected as Labour candidate for Aberavon by 106-105 votes.

Stephen Kinnock is of course son of Baron Kinnock, formerly known as Neil Kinnock, and Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead, formerly Glenys Kinnock, one-time Member of the European Parliament. He is also married to Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Prime Minister of Denmark and leader of the country's Social Democrats, and together they have two children. Helle Thorning-Schmidt has held the top job in Danish politics since 2011.

He was born in Tredegar but went to school in London before graduating from Cambridge. Most of his career to date has been spent working as an executive for the British Council in St Petersburg, Sierra Leone and Switzerland. In 2009 he became a director of the World Economic Forum (the annual gathering of leading figures from the worlds of politics and big business in Davos, Switzerland), and in 2012 he became a director of Xynteo, a consultancy firm which advises big business on "resource-efficient growth".

At Xynteo Stephen Kinnock is Managing Director of Global Leadership and Technology Exchange, a partnership which brings together companies including Shell, Unilever and Tata. Tata Steel, which operates the steel works in Port Talbot, would appear to be Stephen Kinnock's only link to the constituency.

If the UK press has so far not had much to say about Stephen Kinnock's latest career departure, the Danish press is full of comment and speculation. In fact, the Danish press provides a great deal more colour and background on yesterday's meeting in Aberafan than rather more local newspapers.

Berlingske, the leading quality daily, says that the smokestacks of Port Talbot are a light year away from the trendy surroundings of the  Østerbro district of Copenhagen, which is where Stephen Kinnock spends his weekends with his wife and family. Smart shops, spelt rolls, freshly brewed barista coffee and private schools contrast with the pervasive stench of sulphur in Port Talbot, the paper says, before adding that even the locals describe the town as a "shithole".

Reporting on the constituency party's meeting in Aberavon Beach Hotel yesterday, the paper says that the vote went to a recount.

Berlingske also speculates that Stephen's move may mean that his wife has plans to move on to a new job outside Danish politics on a broader international stage. Her supporters have a feeling, it says, that they are not sure how much longer they will have her. 

Whatever Ms Thorning-Schmidt decides to do, it is unlikely that she will be moving to Aberafan and taking up a seat on Neath Port Talbot council any time soon.

Politiken, Berlingske's main rival, also reports that the vote yesterday was extremely close. It notes that other candidates included the Mayor of Neath, Parmjit Dhanda (former Labour MP for Gloucester) and someone who won £32,000 on Who wants to be a millionaire?

The paper says that Stephen Kinnock's campaign promises included securing more jobs in Port Talbot, and that he has said he "knows how decision makers think" and can use this to raise the constituency's profile. 

Stephen Kinnock has also featured prominently in the Danish press for other reasons. In 2010 the Danish media questioned his tax affairs. Denmark has one of the best welfare systems in the world, and income and other taxes are high by international standards. Unlike Britain, there is also much less of a gap between rich and poor.

Understandably, it did not go down well when it emerged that Stephen Kinnock, scion of a Socialist dynasty, was based for tax purposes in Geneva, which is something of a tax haven in the low tax destination of Switzerland. Mr Kinnock told the press at the time that he was based in Denmark for less than 180 days a year. The threshold which would have qualified him for Danish tax was 183 days.

In 2009 Kinnock told Politiken, "When I come home on Fridays, I take over the running of the house. I cook, wash the clothes and drive the children to all their activities. I am a well known face in Super Best (a local supermarket)." Apparently that was not enough to qualify him for residency in Denmark as far as the tax man was concerned.

Another newspaper reported that the family home in Copenhagen was owned only by Helle Thorning-Schmidt, and that this meant the couple were able to take maximum advantage of a tax allowance on mortgage repayments. Prior to that a local TV station reported that Stephen Kinnock used diplomatic status as a reason for not paying tax in Denmark.

In the ensuing row Kinnock told the Danish press that he had found himself in a tax grey zone and that he would voluntarily start paying tax in Denmark. According to Danish sources he later reconsidered this promise and decided not to pay tax in Denmark after all.

Aberafan has returned a Labour MP at every election since 1922.

Y Cneifiwr -  Fårklipperen

 

Kerpow! Cop Commisioner calls time on Carmarthenshire News

The Dyfed-Powys Police Commissioner, Christopher Salmon, has announced that he will be pulling the plug on the force's contribution to Pravda, otherwise known as Carmarthenshire News, the council-led cat litter and hamster bedding service delivered to just about every home in Carmarthenshire.

The Commissioner reckons the £5,000 a year the force has been spending on the propaganda sheet could be better spent on crime safety initiatives, and he plans to communicate with the public through local newspapers instead.

It will be interesting to see whether any of the county council's other partners follow his lead and abandon ship. They include Hywel Dda Health Board, Trinity St Davids, Coleg Sir Gâr and Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service.

Quite why Trinity St Davids ever thought it should get involved with a council paper which from the outset was designed to curb criticism and undermine and threaten a free and independent local press is something it should be asked to explain. Its continued participation in the scheme is a stain on the reputation of this academic institution.

For its part, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue simply cannot afford to waste money on this rubbish.

Hywel Dda Health Board, on the other hand, is engaged in PR trench warfare of its own as it seeks to convince an increasingly sceptical public that everything in the garden is lovely. Chris Martin, the chair of the health board, was therefore none too pleased by Christopher Salmon's announcement and put out this brief statement:

"We were surprised to be informed of this press statement given that this matter was discussed at the last Carmarthenshire Local Service Board meeting which was held on Wednesday.

Although the Police and Crime Commissioner was not present himself, he was represented at the meeting and this message was not conveyed at that time.

He did not copy us in to his press statement or inform us that he was releasing anything before sending the statement to the media.

This matter will be discussed by the Local Service Board at its next meeting."

In the recent round of council budget cuts it was announced that the council would be dropping one issue a year of the paper to make some very modest savings. The council argued in a bizarre article in the Carmarthen Journal that producing one annual A4 information sheet would cost more than publishing a 40+ page colour newspaper 6 times a year, and that the council could not back out of the paper because of commitments to other members of the Local Service Board.

In a council meeting the other week Kevin Madge was asked to explain who had authored this piece, which also made partisan attacks on opposition councillors. In response Kev could only say that the "Journal had put it out there".

The Police Commissioner's decision to distance himself from the County Hall spin machine is to be applauded. It also blows a hole in the council's proposed savings on its PR output.

You won't feel a thing

A freedom of information request shows that in 2013 Carmarthenshire County Council spent £11,935 on advice on the unlawful pay supplement policy (aka the pensions tax dodge) which was taken up by just one person - the chief executive, Mark James.

The picture is likely to be very similar in Pembrokeshire where the policy was supposed not to cost  taxpayers a penny. Just close your eyes - you won't feel a thing.


From documents released by council officers it seems clear that this was the cost of advice provided by Mr Timothy Kerr QC who wrote a report dated 2 September 2013. The timing is interesting because Mr Kerr's report was produced just three weeks before councillors discovered that the Wales Audit Office considered the pay supplement policy to be unlawful. It is hard not to conclude that council officers knew what was coming and started spending money on preparing their defence.

In Pembrokeshire councillors were told that Mr Kerr had provided two separate pieces of advice - in September and again in November.

During that period Mr Kerr was acting for both county councils, and it is very likely that the November advice was also relevant to Carmarthenshire. Despite Kevin Madge's promises to put all information on the table ahead of the extraordinary meeting in February, the November advice has not been released.

Cneifiwr understands that another freedom of information request relating to the costs of defending Carmarthenshire's unlawful decisions has been submitted, and slowly the staggering extent of the waste is beginning to emerge.

In the case of the pensions tax arrangements we do not yet know the cost of a report produced by Total Reward Projects Ltd in 2011. However, Pembrokeshire's county councillors were told by officers that a report produced by another company for that authority cost around £15,000.

What we will never know is the huge cost of officer time spent fighting the Wales Audit Office's findings because the council says it has not recorded that. Bearing in mind that it has preoccupied a good many of the highest paid officers for months, the real answer is likely to run to many tens of thousands of pounds.

Also not included in the figure of £11,935 is the cost of Mr Kerr's services in 2014, including his special guest appearance at the extraordinary meeting in February.

And then, of course, is the much greater and still unknown cost of defending the unlawful libel indemnity.

All of this money was spent using delegated powers. Ordinary councillors were not consulted or even made aware of all of the cheques being written. The Executive Board headed by Kevin Madge was undoubtedly aware, and is supposed to be accountable.

The only excuse we have heard came from Labour's Cllr Anthony Jones, who argued at the February meeting that they were only acting on advice. Not only was it bad advice, but it was also extremely expensive.

Jethro Q Walrustitty in a telepathic vote count

The prospect of a fresh minibus load of UKIP's barking majors, con artists, misogynists and other assorted fruitcakes being returned to the European Parliament in May means that the BBC's election special may well make Monty Python's old election sketch look positively sensible.

In Wales things are likely to be given an additional surreal twist, as presiding over the count in Carmarthenshire will be Mark James, the chief executive who is currently resting at home while the boys in blue from Gloucestershire carry out their investigations.

The South Wales Guardian will report tomorrow that county councillors in Carmarthen have been told that a condition of Mr James's entirely voluntary decision to step aside is that he may not have contact with council staff.

All of which begs the question how he will be able to preside over an election without talking to any of the staff involved. Oh, and the Guardian reckons he can expect to be paid around £20,000 for this experiment in Trappist election management.

Update

Cneifiwr understands that the fee for this election is likely to be around £5,000.

Council's "fantasy" house building targets

All over Wales councils are grinding through the very long-winded process of finalising their Local Development Plans, and all of them are based on wholly unrealistic projections of population growth and housing need. In Wrexham the target is for a 27% increase in the number of homes in the next 20 years. In Denbighshire there are plans for 1,700 new houses in the village of Boddelwyddan and 8,000 across the county as a whole. In a local referendum in Boddelwyddan 93% voted against the plans, but the views of local people are being ignored.

In Cardiff there are plans for 41,000 new homes. In Gwynedd and Môn Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg is organising a rally in Caernarfon to protest against 8,000 new homes under the LDP for those two counties.

All of this is happening against a background of a rise in the number of empty properties and a huge overhang of developments which have been given planning permission but where no building has taken place. Critics of the plans also argue that the LDPs, which provide for very large new housing developments on greenfield sites, favour the big house building companies over small local firms. For example, Carmarthenshire wants to build 1,200 new houses just to the west of Carmarthen, a scheme which will require such massive investment in infrastructure that only the big boys need apply (with the council funding much of the infrastructure work).

As Rhodri Glyn Thomas points out in the piece from the Tivyside Advertiser below, the LDP process is incredibly long-winded and of mind boggling complexity. Built into it are numerous public consultations, but anyone wishing to have their say will find that they first have to read through masses of documentation which is presented in a labyrinth of files, appendices, spreadsheets and topic papers. Having written in once, you will then be asked to write in again and again as the different stages of the plan unfold, before finally being invited to public hearings which are invariably held at times when most people are at work.

The hearings with the planning inspectors are often attended only by council officers, the inspectors and the developers themselves. The result is a juggernaut with a veneer of democratic accountability and consultation which is being pushed through against the wishes of local people.

What is needed now is for councils to join forces and tell the Welsh Government and planning inspectorate that the plans need a radical rethink.

_______________________

Assembly Member Rhodri Glyn Thomas has this week called for a moratorium on Carmarthenshire’s Local Development Plan after new figures released by StatsWales for the Welsh government show the county will permit the building of thousands of houses over and above the county’s projected need.

The latest household projections for Wales released on the 27th February show the number of new houses Carmarthenshire will need will be 11,600 over twenty five years (between 2011 and 2036).

But Carmarthenshire’s Local Development Plan - which is currently with the planning inspector - plans for around 10,000 houses in just the next 15 years – almost what the county needs with 10 years to spare.
Plaid Cymru’s Rhodri Glyn Thomas says the latest housing projections are enough to halt the LDP in order for planners to think again about the impact of over-development in the county.

Branding LDPs as an ‘absolute fantasy’, Rhodri Glyn Thomas this week raised the matter with the Welsh government’s Housing Minister.

The Carmarthen East and Dinefwr Assembly Member said:

“The latest housing projections from StatsWales support what Plaid Cymru has said throughout Wales for a very long time – that the house building targets in the LDPs are absolute fantasy and should be scrapped.

“The extremely complex and confusing processes of the LDP can often mask the true extent of development in an area. But what we now know is that the current planned LDP for Carmarthenshire will see around 25 years worth of housing development within 15 years.

“These are not my figures. These are figures from the Welsh Government’s own StatsWales department.
“There is no local need for this scale of over development, and a ‘build at all costs’ attitude will do nothing to secure the unique and vibrant culture, heritage and characteristics of our towns and villages.

“I believe there should be a moratorium on the current LDP. County planners should get back to the drawing board to come up with a realistic plan in line with Carmarthenshire’s true need.”

History Corner: Office Furniture

Two chief executives are involved in a tug of war over their office furniture, The Western Mail reports

 

Two chief executives are involved in a tug of war over their office furniture, The Western Mail reports (p3).

Bryn Parry-Jones took the furniture he chose for his former office at Llanelli Town Hall with him when he was appointed chief executive of Pembrokeshire UA, and the new authority willingly agreed to pay the Llanelli Borough Council valuation of £1,650.

But, says the Mail, members of the new Carmarthenshire Unitary Authority have now instructed their chief executive Roderic Morgan to recover the furniture as it is 'an asset they are to inherit.'

Mr Morgan says it will be needed because he intends to use the office at Llanelli on a regular basis.

The Western Mail says Mr Morgan could have a long wait, because the leader of Llanelli Borough Council, Wynn Jenkins, says:

'As far as I am concerned the furniture is staying in Pembrokeshire - and they have already sent us a cheque for it.' He said that under Welsh Office rules Llanelli was entitled to dispose of anything under the value of £100,000 without consulting the shadow authority.

17 October 1995

Turning a blind eye - Labour and UKIP

Despite the best efforts of his party's members to derail Nigel Farage's campaign for the European elections in May, the polls show that UKIP is on course to do very well at the expense of the Tories and quite possibly Labour in England.

In recent months we have heard UKIP promises to ban schools from teaching climate change; a whole battery of attacks on women's rights (business owners should be allowed to turn away women job applicants, women who don't clean behind their fridges are "sluts", and so on); a UKIP councillor blaming gay marriage for the winter storms and floods; another MEP saying that Muslims should be required to sign a charter denouncing some passages in the Koran; pictures of UKIP candidates giving Hitler salutes, wearing Jimmy Savile masks and blaming the Jews for the Holocaust - the list goes on.

The trouble is that UKIP is a one man band. When someone puts a cross against a loony, racist, homophobic UKIP candidate in an election, it doesn't matter because they are voting for Nigel, and Nigel is a decent bloke who talks common sense, right?

Wrong. "These things happen", says Nigel, who also blames the media for blowing things out of proportion. That's the same media (the Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Express and Daily Telegraph to name but a few) which have been peddling anti-European myths and the other rubbish which now passes for mainstream political thinking in the UK.

The Tories are caught like a rabbit in the headlights, petrified by the monster they have helped to create, while Labour seems to be calculating that because UKIP is bad for the Tories, it should turn a blind eye.

The Independent reported yesterday that some senior figures in the Labour Party are beginning to worry about their strategy because voters in many parts of England will also be electing councils on the same day, and a good many of those councils are currently in Labour hands.

A sudden rise in support for UKIP in the elections to the European Parliament could also see a lot of UKIP councillors being returned.

We will not be voting for new councils in Wales on 22 May, and Labour's strategy here is to attack not UKIP, but Plaid Cymru. There are important differences between Labour and Plaid on Europe. For example, Labour MPs sided with right-wing Eurosceptic Tories in October to cut the EU budget in real-terms, a move which will mean less EU money for Wales. Broadly, however, the two parties are on the same wavelength when it comes to the EU. It is just that Leanne Wood is showing leadership, while Carwyn Jones is not. Google Carwyn Jones and UKIP, and you'll see what I mean.

At the recent Plaid spring conference Leanne Wood called on voters to reject the Europhobia of UKIP, and warned of the catastrophic consequences for Wales of a right-wing, isolationist UK.

Whatever you think of Leanne Wood, you can't accuse her of playing to the gallery and taking a populist approach. Too much is at stake for ordinary people in Wales to turn a blind eye to Nigel Farage.

Labour's response in Wales has been to devote its energy to comments made by a disgruntled Dafydd Elis-Thomas instead of using its influence to warn of the dangers of a UKIP success in May.

All of which brings us back home to Carmarthenshire where Labour's council leader, Kevin Madge, has probably made his one and only contribution to the debate in the run-up to the European elections.

Calling for Dafydd Elis-Thomas to join Labour, Kevin Madge told the South Wales Guardian that he "strongly supported Lord Elis-Thomas", and that the Plaid leader was "out of touch". He added: "We live in an open society where people hold a lot of different views".

So the threat to the 150,000 Welsh jobs which are directly dependent on the EU, £5 billion of trade, EU aid to the Valleys and West Wales, the climate change denial, racism, homophobia and anti-women's rights stance of UKIP don't matter.

It's a bit like a Social Democrat leader in Germany in 1932 saying, "Of course Mr Hitler and his followers are entitled to their views, and anyone who criticises them is out of touch".

Council of Despair: A new vision

After a recent unplanned stay in the Beti George Rehab Clinic (Llandysul), Sali Malu-Cachu is unfortunately back at her writing desk.

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The Chief pressed the "play" button on the remote and sat back to enjoy his favourite bit of the recent broadcast of proceedings in Hardupwest.

Mr Quentin Money-Bagges QC peered over the top of his Armani spectacles and addressed the hushed chamber.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my attention has been drawn to a series of most unfortunate statements".

The QC paused and removed his spectacles for dramatic effect as he plucked a sheaf of papers from a large white envelope.

"I will with your forbearance read just a few of these outrageous remarks made to the gutter press and on various blogging sites.

"Bryn should consider his position"

"The chief executive should take a holiday"

"Flogging is too good for him"

"I'm worried about Bryn"

"Sack the bastard"

"And I could go on. It is quite apparent, is it not, that some of you have come to this Court today with your minds made up and have therefore failed in your duty carefully to weigh up the evidence and vote, as your Leader has recommended, to reject this ludicrous motion of no confidence.

"I therefore regret that the following members of the jury have disqualified themselves from playing any further part in these proceedings, and must immediately withdraw.

"Mr Butcher, Mr Baker, Mr Nutter and Ms Candlestickmaker, Mr Grumpy, Mr Sneezy, Mr Kiljoy and the young man with glasses and a pudding basin haircut...."

The list continued, and gradually the opposition benches emptied, until at length Mr Money-Bagges resumed his seat.

The Leader rose. "Ladies and gentlemen, it now falls to us to vote on this grave matter. You are of course free to cast your ballot as you see fit, having carefully considered all the evidence put before you today. You may, on the one hand, agree with the bile and bitter ravings of those members who have now disqualified themselves. Or you may take the view that we are fortunate indeed to be served by one of the greatest minds ever to take office in this or any other authority.

"It is entirely up to you. But if any of you should be unwise enough to ignore the evidence, I shall have no option but to withdraw your special responsibility allowances forthwith. Moreover, those of you awaiting special deliveries of tarmac may find that we shall be forced to make cutbacks."

The Chief paused the Blu-ray recording. What a genius. What mastery of his brief. Mr Money-Bagges was certainly worth every penny of his modest £1,999.99 per hour (+VAT and expenses) fee.

His reveries were interrupted by a cough.

"What is it, Smithers?"

"It is Mrs Chippings on the telephone, Sir".

"Very well, Smithers, and when I have finished my conversation with Muriel, I intend to inspect the model in the Billiard Room".

The familiar voice boomed down the line. "These are dark days indeed, and I cannot say how much you are missed. The place is falling apart under the third rate monkeys who have taken our rightful places".

"Muriel, I have always known that I can rely on your unswerving support, but do not worry. I have put the time now at my disposal to very good use, thanks to my entirely voluntary decision to step aside. I have a new vision for this godforsaken hellhole, and together, Muriel, we shall rule again and take this authority to new and undreamed of heights. It will be just like old times, only better.

"Why don't you get little Higgins, the chauffeur, to motor you over this evening, and I will show you my new vision."

Moments later, the Chief strolled into the Billiard Room where Smithers was waiting.

There set out on the vast Louis Seize mahogany table was a scale model of how the county would look in just a few years from now.

Off the coast stood an array of gigantic platforms pumping gas back to the shining new refinery in the re-named Princess Camilla Coastal Park. Close to the refinery was the vast new Chippings International Airport, with high-speed rail links leading to the Robbie Savage Winter Olympics village and stadium. On part of the complex lay the Reverend Bonnett Ice Skating Experience with its huge auditorium capable of seating 20,000 members of the Oklahoma Church of Latterday Divine Retribution.

Close by and surrounding the former industrial town on the coast were the new settlements of Little Venice with their attractive water-filled streets. Towering above the lot was the refurbished and rebranded Parc Pickering, while just to the north lay the new Prince George Aquatics Centre on the shores of Princess Kate Lake (formerly known as Llangyndeyrn).

This was most satisfactory, the Chief mused, before his gaze shifted to what Muriel liked to call "The Reservations" further north.

Where once had stood the scruffy old county town now sprawled a huge conurbation of housing developments and shopping malls rebranded as Camillaville.

This would all create jobs, jobs, jobs, and further north still in the howling wastelands previously inhabited by a few sheep farmers and scurrilous bloggers rose the attractive concrete hulk of Wylfa C, powering the vibrant economy created by the new Local Development Plan.

This was indeed a vision for the 21st Century, and together with Muriel he would drive it forward.

The Chief's thoughts were interrupted once more by the familiar cough of Smithers.

"Sir, it seems that you are needed to run an election."

At that moment a shaft of sunlight broke through the lowering grey clouds. Things were indeed looking up.

Out of control drone shot down by Ellen ap Gwynn

Update 13 March

The Tivyside Advertiser reports that Cllr James has now resigned from the Independent group as well as being sacked from the council's cabinet.

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Unlike the BBC where they never seem to be off air, Nigel Farage and UKIP have never made an appearance on this blog. That has probably got something to with the fact that Carmarthenshire is blissfully a UKIP-free zone unless, as is quite possible, there are some closet UKIP supporters in the grizzled ranks of Pam Palmer's "Independents". There are after all several known Tories and at least one card-carrying member of the Labour Party on the Independent benches in County Hall.

Just over the border in Ceredigion one councillor elected as an Independent has just outed himself as a member of UKIP, and Ellen ap Gwynn, the Plaid leader of the council, wasted no time in giving Cllr Gethin James the boot from her cabinet. According to the BBC, she has gone a step further and warned the Independent group of which he is a part that she will end the coalition agreement with them unless they throw him out of their group.

To its credit, the best account of what has happened was carried by the Tivyside Advertiser which looks into Ellen's reasons for sacking Cllr James:

"Ceredigion council is committed to making the most of opportunities offered by European Union funds to strengthen our economy. EU structural funds have already been crucial in building the coastal path which brings so much revenue to tourism businesses, to transport improvements in the county, and to investment in our universities.

The agreed joint work programme of the coalition, signed by the groups represented in the cabinet, explicitly commits us to using EU funds to strengthen Ceredigion’s economy and society. 

I want this Council to be seen as outward looking, open for business and tourists and working hard to get the maximum possible out of Europe for businesses and farmers in Ceredigion.” 

Between 2007 and 2013 Wales received a fraction under £2 billion in EU funds to support projects. Together with match funding from other sources, that meant a total project investment of £3.7bn, and much of that funding has gone to areas of high deprivation.

In the next round of funding covering the period 2014-2020 West Wales and the Valleys have been marked out for the highest levels of support under the EU's structural funds.

The EU is crucially important to Wales as a whole, and for this part of Wales in particular, in terms of trade, business and tourism, and not just because of the structural funds.

As many readers may have noticed in recent years, we are getting more and more visitors every summer from mainland Europe, and unlike the traditional down-market tourism places like Aberporth and Newquay have attracted with their caravan parks, the Europeans come here for the scenery, the environment and culture.

They have a lot of spending power, are often genuinely interested in Welsh culture and the fact that we are not an outlying part of Cameron's little England.

Unlike Cllr James, Ellen ap Gwynn is smart enough to realise that developing trading links and tourism with the EU offers this region a much more exciting future than building more bungalows for retired couples from Brum and caravan parks for their offspring. Sorry Birmingham.

But back to UKIP.

UKIP has almost no presence in Scotland and barely registers in Wales. In Northern Ireland it has a single assembly member who was elected as an Ulster Unionist. It should more accurately be called the England Independence Party.

Apart from Cllr James in Aberporth, the party claims four other councillors in Wales, and two of those are in Colwyn Bay.

It has no Assembly Members, no MPs, and just one MEP in Wales, John Bufton. Bufton was elected to the European Parliament in 2009 and is standing down at this year's election. Unlike a good many of his colleagues, Bufton can at least claim that he made it through the full term of the parliament without resigning, defecting or being expelled. Neither did he end up in jail as did Tom Wise, a UKIP MEP convicted in 2009 of what the judge described as "deliberate and blatant dishonesty" for systematically embezzling European Parliament expenses.

Back in Aberporth, Cllr James has been a notable supporter of developing and testing unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, despite strong opposition from many local people.

Congratulations to Ellen for shooting this particular drone out of the skies.

Votes for Bryn and Mark -Updated

Update 12 March 5pm

The Wales Office of the Electoral Commission has been in touch to make the following clarification:

"The role of a Returning Officer is an independent position and the Electoral Commission are not responsible for, and have no legal power relating to, the appointment or the removal of a Returning Officer for any given election. This is a matter for the relevant Government department (in the case of the European Parliamentary elections, this would be the responsibility of the UK Government) and accompanying legislation.

"The position of Local Returning Officer (LRO) for the European Parliamentary election is determined by legislation. The person who is the Returning Officer for local government elections (appointed by the individual county or county borough in Wales) is automatically appointed the LRO for the European Parliamentary elections in that area (Regulation 6 (2) of the European Parliamentary Election Regulations 2004, as amended in 2013)."

Update 12 March

Golwg 360 reports that a spokesperson for Carmarthenshire County Council confirmed that Mr James would be acting as returning officer, saying that the role was different to that of chief executive of the council.

As several people have pointed out, the decision by the Electoral Commission is likely to mean that Mr James will be back behind his desk in County Hall despite stepping down as chief executive pending the outcome of police investigations.

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On 22 May voters in Britain will elect 73 Members of the European Parliament. In Wales we will be choosing four members using a proportional representation voting system, and overseeing the voting process and responsible for the count will be local council chief executives acting as returning officers.

The Electoral Commission has confirmed that in Carmarthenshire the returning officer will be Mr Mark James CBE.

Overall responsibility for the election in Wales will rest with Mr Bryn Parry Jones, the chief executive of Pembrokeshire County Council, and both Mr James and Mr Parry Jones will receive generous fees for their work which are in addition to their very high salaries.

The Wales Audit Office has acknowledged that there is a lack of transparency when it comes to returning officer fees, but both men are likely to earn as much for a few days work as many people in the West of Wales earn in a year.

Jonathan Edwards MP has called for urgent ministerial intervention to deal with a situation in which two men at the centre of a police investigation into governance practices in the local authorities they head up will be put in charge of an election and paid handsomely for it.

Jonathan made the call in a speech in the House of Commons last week in which he highlighted the shortcomings of local government in Carmarthenshire. The full text can be found at the end of this piece, and it is well worth reading.

Jonathan Edwards is not the only politician to express alarm at what is happening. Last month Rebecca Evans (Lab), Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales, told the Western Telegraph that Bryn Parry Jones should be relieved of his duties as returning officer until the police had concluded their investigations.

At last week's meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council, on the other hand, the council leader Jamie Adams did not see why Mr Parry Jones should be removed from anything. He suggested that the police investigation was not really an investigation but an exercise to determine whether there should be an investigation. Moreover Mr Parry Jones had not been accused of anything and was not under investigation personally.

Similar semantics could be used in the case of Carmarthenshire. This is what Dyfed Powys Police said when it handed matters over to Gloucestershire Constabulary:

Dyfed-Powys Police have now fully considered the three Public Interest Reports published on 30th January 2014 by Wales Audit Office, into matters relating to Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire County Councils.  

As a result, the Force has decided that it is a matter which should be investigated in the public interest by the Police, to ascertain whether or not any criminal offences have taken place. 

That sounds rather different to the airy-fairy, hypothetical exercise described by Cllr Adams, and although they are not named individually, Bryn Parry Jones and Mark James both played a central role in the matters now being investigated.

In Carmarthenshire Labour has spent most of the last week trying to turn a comment Jonathan made on Twitter about Sam Warburton, the rugby player, into a major scandal ahead of the national team's lack lustre performance against England on Sunday.

By contrast Labour's elected representatives in the county have so far been silent about the role Mr James will play in the European elections, and Cllr Calum Higgins has had very little to say for himself during the entire course of the scandals which have engulfed Carmarthenshire County Council since September last year. The most concrete expression of his views came at the recent extraordinary meeting of the council when he voted against a motion of no confidence in Meryl Gravell, Pam Palmer and Kevin Madge.

Voters who had been hoping finally to see the back of Meryl were without a doubt less than impressed.

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Speech by Jonathan Edwards MP in the House of Commons on 6 March 2014

Carmarthenshire has a very proud history. Some say it has a claim to be the birthplace of Welsh democracy, which is a reference to Carmarthenshire’s role in delivering a yes vote for the National Assembly in the successful 1997 referendum.  

However, a dark cloud has been hanging over local democracy in Carmarthenshire for far too long, with a ruling cabal of senior officials and executive board members repressively running the council, stopping democratic debate by the full council, pressurising local journalists, smearing opposition politicians, coercing a council chair who dared defy instruction and making financial arrangements to enable the chief executive, a man who earns almost £4,000 a week, to avoid paying his fair share of tax.  

A seemingly permanent back-room deal between Labour and so-called independent councillors—or the closet Tories as the right hon. Member for Neath (Mr Hain) describes them—means elections are unlikely to lead to political change. 

At the last local authority elections, my party won the largest number of seats convincingly, achieving over 10,000 more votes than our Labour opponents. It is the same discredited personnel at the helm, however. 

Given the number of mentions that Carmarthenshire has had in Private Eye’s “Rotten Boroughs” column, one might think that the executive board members would have got the message. 

However, unrepentant, the council and the executive board are moving towards darker waters. 

That is what happens when we have a toxic combination of weak executive board councillors and powerful senior officers. 

The warnings relating to recent events could not have been clearer. Local papers have lost advertising revenue, which could bankrupt their businesses, for daring to criticise executive board decisions.  

We have seen the steady erosion of the democratic process, with powers being taken away from councillors and put into the hands of unelected officers, and with the executive board rubber-stamping decisions and, to all intents and purposes, operating as the political wing of those senior officers. 

In the past month, a report from the independent Wales Audit Office has found that the executive board was guilty of sanctioning two unlawful payments for the benefit of the chief executive. Those payments totalled more than £50,000.  

One relates to the granting of a legal indemnity which enabled the chief executive to counter-sue a local blogger.  

The second relates to a tax dodge involving the redirection of pension contributions into the pocket of the chief executive.  

The report was damning, and any politician with a sense of integrity would have done the honourable thing and instigated an urgent investigation into the implicated officers before resigning on the spot themselves.  

Instead, we got a deliberate propaganda campaign from the publicly financed press department of the council to discredit the Wales Audit Office, and threats and smears against opposition politicians. 

Last week, the people of Carmarthenshire were subjected to a farcical extraordinary meeting to discuss the Wales Audit Office report. 

The executive board commissioned a QC, at a potential cost of thousands of pounds to Carmarthenshire ratepayers, to discredit the Wales Audit Office’s findings and protect its leaders from votes of no confidence. 

This has all been happening at a time when the executive board is pushing through huge cuts to council services and increasing council tax by almost 5%. 

The Labour party in Carmarthenshire is pushing through the privatisation of care services, increasing charges for school meals, reducing assessments for children with special needs, making financial cuts to welfare advice services and extending and increasing charges for social care, as well as introducing a range of other regressive measures. 

It is a matter of pressing concern that, despite being relieved of his duties, the chief executive of Carmarthenshire county council will continue to be the local returning officer for the forthcoming European elections.  

The Electoral Commission has confirmed that position. I fail to understand how an individual who is no longer at his desk due to a police investigation can be responsible for the democratic processes in my county. The same applies in Pembrokeshire, unless events in that great county have changed the situation today, and I ask for immediate ministerial intervention.

Source: Hansard

Everyone a winner except for the pit canary

Friday's meeting of the full council saw leader Kevin Madge perform a U-turn on his plans to push through dramatic increases in charges for sports facilities. Charges for the current year will still rise, but the council will carry out a review of fees for years two and three of the scheme.

Up before the council on Friday was a motion submitted by Cllr Emlyn Dole (Plaid) calling for a freeze of the new charges, and after most of the Labour councillors left the chamber it was adopted unanimously with the sole exception of Cllr Meryl Gravell, who according to the South Wales Guardian's reporter declined to vote or abstain.

In Kevin Madge's words the policy was all about fairness and creating a level playing field, and what was going through Cllr Gravell's mind as the council's determination to implement it crumbled away, we shall probably never know, but her views on protesters ("rabble") and councillors who listen to public opinion ("weak") are the stuff of legend.

The Plaid Cymru group on the council had been warning about the devastating consequences for many local sports clubs ever since it stumbled across the proposals back in October. When the matter was first raised, Kevin Madge described opposition councillors as "ostriches in the sand" and had refused to allow the decision to be debated.

But that was then, and this is now. In the wake of the Wales Audit Office's damning public interest reports which highlighted grave shortcomings in the way the council is run and the "chickens came home to roost" as Kev might say, he now believes that we are entering a new era. Things will be done differently, and there will be a fresh start, he has declared several times in the council chamber, flanked by his dream team of Meryl Gravell, Pam Palmer, Tegwen Devichand et al.

Even Kev's staunchest supporters would find it difficult to describe this set-up as fresh. The likelihood that the old dogs on the Executive Board will learn new tricks and embrace consultation, transparency and democracy is slim indeed.

Despite all that, Kevin Madge somehow saw the U-turn as a victory for his fresh start.

The truth was that without the stand taken by Plaid and a high profile campaign run by Carmarthenshire United Sports Committee (CUSC), the ruling Labour-Independent coalition would have stuck to its guns.

That did not prevent the Llanelli Star, which briefly rediscovered the virtues of listening to public opinion, from claiming that it was the Star wot won it because it had taken the unusual step of printing some readers' views.

So there we are. In a sense everyone involved (except possibly Meryl Gravell) was a winner.

This new-found commitment to giving readers a say only goes so far. While the South Wales Guardian found space for several readers' letters expressing their disgust about recent events in County Hall, the Star's sister paper in Carmarthen printed just one rather mildly worded letter from a reader who was less than impressed with Kevin Madge (criticism of the council itself remains an absolute taboo on the Journal).

The council's webcast of the extraordinary meeting couple two weeks ago attracted nearly 2,500 viewers, and public interest in local government has rarely been as intense. The letters pages of local newspapers, normally a useful barometer for gauging public opinion, have been largely silent in much of the county.


Friday's meeting thus brought to an end an extraordinary month of long council meetings in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire in which the public got to see their elected representatives at work.

In Pembrokeshire the council leader, Jamie Adams (Ind) was also keen to talk about fresh starts. The council was now a very different beast to what it had been before he became leader, he said several times. To show just how different things are now, he ensured his troops voted not to suspend chief executive Bryn Parry Jones. They also voted not to suspend the monitoring officer, Laurence Harding. Mr Harding it was who demonstrated his professionalism and non-partisan approach to his duties by handing an envelope containing the name of dissident councillors to Mr Timothy Kerr QC as he was chauffered to Haverfordwest.

For anyone from Carmarthenshire watching Thursday's webcast from Haverfordwest, there would have been much that was familiar from County Hall in Carmarthen, but also some surprises.

Pembrokeshire County Council is dominated by councillors who describe themselves as "Independents". There is also a separate breed of independent independents and a scattering of small party groups (Plaid, Labour and Conservative).

The three members of the Conservative group managed to vote three different ways on the motion to suspend the chief executive. The Labour group in Haverfordwest was forthright in its condemnation of policies and practices which its brothers and sisters in Carmarthen have spent the last six months defending to the hilt.

There is also a very strange breed of Pembrokeshire councillor who manage to have a foot in more than one camp. The appalling Cllr Susan Perkins manages to be a leading light in the ruling Independent administration while still being a member of the Labour Party in whose name she was elected.

As Old Grumpy reports, Cllr Perkins' recollection of her past actions seems to be at odds with the official record on several scores. She claimed last week to have previously voted to get rid of Mr Parry Jones when the record shows that she voted against an opposition motion of no confidence.

One noticeable difference between the two councils is that in Pembrokeshire the official Independents actually speak and contribute to debate, even if the quality and accuracy of their contributions leave a lot to be desired.

In Carmarthenshire most of the grizzled Independent contingent never have a word to say for themselves, with the exception of Meryl Gravell, Giles Morgan and occasionally Pam Palmer.

The Carmarthenshire Independents appear to have a policy of normally allowing only one backbencher to speak. Before the 2012 election that role was assumed by Stephen James (more recently star of "The Call Centre"), who would deliver his Daily Mail view of the world at every meeting. Now the official mascot is Giles Morgan. Giles likes to wear a white linen jacket, and was memorably described recently as "Martin Bell minus ethics".

At the recent Extraordinary Meeting to discuss the WAO reports, Giles tore into Jacqui Thompson for criticising the chief executive. What she had done was outrageous and disgusting, he declared. As an employer he would have no qualms about supporting a member of staff if they found themselves in the libel courts.

Let's hope for Giles's sake that this is never put to the test. Somehow it feels unlikely that the councillor would be prepared to dig into his own pockets to fund a libel action brought by one of his employees.

Also making a rare contribution to discussion at the recent extraordinary meeting in Carmarthen was veteran Independent councillor Tom Theophilus. Now in his ninth decade, Tom recounted his travails defending his honour before the Public Services Ombudsman. Luckily for Tom nobody reminded him how he had claimed somewhat fancifully at the last election to be standing in Cilycwm with the backing of Plaid Cymru.

Lucky also for Cllr Gravell that nobody challenged an assertion she has now made on a couple of occasions that the council decided to introduce its notorious libel indemnity clause to the constitution in 2009 when it noticed a sudden surge of cases of defamation against council officers.

Whereas Jamie Adams in Pembrokeshire tried to put some distance between himself and the council's officers by saying that he did not always see eye to eye with Bryn Parry Jones, Meryl Gravell left no doubt where she stood in Carmarthenshire. "It is always morally correct to defend your officers", she declared angrily at one point.

To end with the sort of ornithological phraseology so favoured by council leader Kevin Madge as he embarks on his fresh start, with friends like these his hopes are, as they say, "gobaith caneri" (a reference to the life expectancy of canaries once used to detect toxic gases in mines).