An alternative vision for Carmarthenshire

Alun Lenny, the often outspoken Carmarthen town councillor who will be standing for election to the County Council in May, wrote an interesting letter to the Carmarthen Journal this week in which he gave us a glimpse of what may be in the Plaid manifesto for the elections.

No doubt, the finishing touches to the manifesto are being made now, and the document will be an interesting one because this county sorely needs a radical change of direction.

Mr Lenny begins by attacking the culture of bullying and arrogance which has become such a hallmark of the administration led by the "dream team", as Labour's Kevin Madge describes them, of Meryl Gravell and chief executive Mark James, and he goes on to say that, if returned with a majority, Plaid would "create a new democratic structure" to include the most talented and experienced councillors from all groups in the administration.

Back in March 2009 the Plaid group on the council brought a motion proposing a change to what was called a "politically balanced board", only to see the idea rubbished by the council's officers and voted down by the ruling Independent-Labour coalition.

With thanks to Anon (comments below), it is clear that Plaid's options under the Local Government Measure 2011 are very limited when it comes to changing the structure of the council. Under that measure, Welsh local authorities may choose between either:

•  A leader and cabinet executive (the current system in Carmarthenshire)
• A mayor and cabinet executive (the system preferred by some of the county boroughs)

What this means is that Plaid would have to continue with the existing arrangements, although it could of course invite some non-Plaid councillors to join it on the Executive Board.

Whether this would appeal to members of the Independent and Labour groups, only time may tell, and the response of the Independents to such an offer would be particularly interesting because, of course, they claim not to be a political party, just a collection of "like-minded" individuals. In reality, the group functions like any other political party except that unlike political parties membership is by invitation only.

Although the idea has its attractions, the danger is that we could end up with a council in which opposition is limited to a tiny handful of true independents, and debate and scrutiny are stifled.

We will have to wait and see what the manifesto says, and this blog will examine what is on offer from any other group which publishes a manifesto in the run-up to the elections. Let's just hope that they contain some real substance and not the usual empty platitudes about "standing up for the community" which is the normal fare on offer.

Mr Moon to the rescue

The Carmarthen Journal reports that Rupert Moon, former Wales cap, ex-broadcaster and businessman has been persuaded to stand in the council elections in May to replace Cllr Clive Scourfield in the ward of Gorslas. Mr Moon is currently commercial director of the Scarlets, a rather more challenging role than his previous ventures.

Cllr Scourfield has been no stranger to controversy in his stint on the county council, where he is currently member of the ruling Executive Board responsible for regeneration. One of the flagship regeneration schemes in his portfolio was, of course, the Parc y Scarlets development in Llanelli which has turned out to be a bottomless money pit for the hard-pressed taxpayers of Carmarthenshire.

The combination of business dealings, the county council's top brass and rugby bosses will therefore be strengthened if Mr Rupert Henry St. John Barker Moon is elected and, no doubt, catapulted into the top ranks of the "Independent" group.Whether that is a healthy state of affairs is something the citizens of Gorslas should reflect on.

Mr Moon says he is not motivated by politics, although he thinks the current ruling Independent-Labour coalition have done some good things. The question is, however, whose interests he would be serving if elected. If he is anything like some of his fellow "Independents", the answer would be: not the voters in his ward (just ask the people of Llandovery and Llandeilo).

Filming council meetings - Carmarthenshire poll in melt-down. Updated

For some weeks past, Carmarthenshire County Council has been asking people on its website if they would watch live streaming video of council meetings, and voting was unsurprisingly running heavily in favour of opening things up. By this morning around 320 people had voted for, while about 56 had voted against.

The question itself was phrased in a slightly odd way, and suggests that if and when the council does finally get round to it, viewers would only be able to view meetings in real-time (i.e. during normal working hours on weekdays) rather than at a time of their own choosing.

Perhaps it was a technical glitch, or perhaps somebody did not like the way people were voting, but at some point this morning, the poll was reset. If you had voted before, you cannot vote again, and so far only a handful of new votes have been cast.

Whatever the reason, the near 400 people who thought that their votes would count and that their voice might be heard have now been subjected to the Carmarthenshire consultation experience.

Without wishing to sound unduly alarmist, we should of course remember that the council's chief executive is also the county's returning officer in elections. Let's hope votes don't get "lost" in May.

Your views have been recycled. Whatever they were.

Update 1 March: The poll has now disappeared altogether. The council website is notoriously wobbly; things come and go; links work and then stop working; parts just don't work at all for weeks on end. A bit like the council, really.

Ethical investments: The county council, the rugby boss and the arms industry

Carmarthenshire's press office was in jubilant mood on Monday when it announced that a company called R&A Properties had done a deal with Cassidian, a division of the multi-national EADS arms group.

What has that got to do with local government? You may well wonder. So let's leave the party, with its back slapping and popping champagne corks (we weren't invited anyway, citizens of Carmarthenshire), and root around in the shrubbery thanks to the national treasure which is Caebrwyn's archive.

Who knows, we may well meet a few interesting people and old friends along the way.

Back in 2009 the Ministry of Defence decided to sell its 37 acre site at Llangennech near Llanelli, and it decided to put the land up for auction. Before the auction could take place, Carmarthenshire County Council made a surprise last minute appearance and snapped it up for £700,000.

The site was then immediately sold on to a company called R&A Properties for, the council said, £700,000 plus legal expenses. Except that R&A Properties wasn't a company in the strict sense of the term, because to be a company you have to be registered with Companies House. And it did not even have a telephone number until after the deal had been done.

Everything seemed to happen at break-neck speed - a last minute scramble to secure the site for a company which was going to bring new jobs for the area was how the council's officers portrayed it. They also argued that it had been necessary to act in this way to stop the promised jobs going elsewhere, and presumably prevent anyone else who might not be "known to the officers" from buying the site at auction. But there are some nagging questions.

Despite the great rush to push the deal through, the council somehow found time to stick to at least some of the rules, and councillors were asked to approve it at a meeting of the full council. It hardly goes without saying that the discussion took placed behind closed doors, with press and public excluded.

Several concerned people took their worries to the press, including the Western Mail, which spoke to one councillor who did not want to be named. This councillor said that a number of councillors had felt very uneasy about what they were being asked to do by "officers" (no prizes for guessing which officer in particular). Councillors were not told who the backers of R&A Properties were, only that they were personally known to the officers. So that was all right, then.

Councillors were also told that the deal would create 100 jobs by the end of the year (2009) because R&A had a "blue chip" client lined up involved in defence procurement.

The Western Mail was also told that the deal had been subject to a thorough valuation involving all parties. The original report can be found here.

The story does not end here, of course, but let's take a moment to reflect and ask some questions.

• It takes only minutes to buy a company off the shelf and register it with Companies House, so why was this done so late in the day, especially since there had obviously been in-depth negotiations, a full valuation had been carried out (according to the council's officers), and time had been found to schedule a slot at a council meeting to approve the arrangement?
• Why were councillors not told the identity of the officers' acquaintances involved in the deal?
• Why did the county council have to front the deal when, apparently, R&A had the money sitting ready and waiting to buy the site?

A couple of weeks after the council had approved the deal, the Llanelli Star discovered the identities of the two men behind R&A. They were chairman Mr Robert Lovering and chairman of the Welsh Rugby Union, David Pickering, a former rugby star himself. Meanwhile Mr Lovering had been telling the BBC that he hoped to conclude a deal with that "blue chip" company by the end of the year to create 70 jobs (30 jobs seem to have vanished in less than a couple of weeks).

It is not a state secret that the chief executive of Carmarthenshire County Council, Mark James, is very keen on rugby, so that would explain the "known to the officers" bit.

In honour of Mr Pickering's sporting connections, it was decided that the new venture would be called Stradey Business Park, even though it is nowhere near Stradey Park. It looks exactly like what you would expect from a former MoD establishment - big fences, redbrick buildings and some large grey metal sheds.

Rather strangely for a major business venture seeking new clients, Stradey Business Park seems to be a little publicity shy, and it does not have a website of its own, although there is a rather uninspiring website for R&A Properties (here). You can get a glimpse from a couple of estate agents who are trying to sell leases on the bits not taken by Cassidian, and if you want to talk to someone at R&A, the company's website directs you to a solicitor in Cardiff.

Back in 2009, the deal provided a photo opportunity for Cllrs Meryl Gravell and Clive Scourfield, as well as Mark James and Mr Lovering. Here they are celebrating:

Handing over the "keys" (with thanks to the BBC)

At the time, R&A said it planned to invest £1.5 million in the site over the next 6 months.

In November 2011 there was another photo opportunity when R&A unveiled a large solar panel installation on the roofs of the buildings in the business park. Robert Lloyd tells us that Mark James was once again on hand, excitedly stating:

“This is very innovative thinking by R&A Properties – especially so because of the location of the solar-powered panels on the roof which means that no-one can see the cells, yet they are able to produce thousands of pounds of clean energy which is used on the business park to drive industry. It is a win for the businesses and a win for the environment.”

The piece goes on to say that tenants on the site include "the public sector, an international defence client and an aerospace first tier supplier". The international defence client is probably Thales UK, which is involved in fitting out Warthog armoured vehicles. Presumably the aerospace client is different from Cassidian, and the public sector client would appear to be the NHS.

A month later, Carmarthenshire County Council's Regeneration Scrutiny Committee met to approve a whole string of grants to various bodies, including £281,000 to the Stradey Business Park (for some reason the company R&A Properties is not named in the council's record). Unsurprisingly, this decision was subject to the usual exemption (no press or public allowed).

At the same meeting, a grant of £1,004,232 was approved to a company called Dolawen Cyf, a company belonging to the TRJ Group in Ammanford (the same lot behind the Ammanford police station PFI initiative which is now causing the chief constable so many sleepless nights). Another exempt decision.

The latest press release from the county council's spin machine does not tell us how many jobs the Cassidian deal will create, but it is full of gushing remarks from both R&A and Cassidian about the council's approach to doing business, and they have every reason to be grateful.

Plaid Cymru has a long and honourable tradition of opposing the militarisation of Wales, so its councillors in Carmarthenshire may be surprised to see that the deal they were urged to approve has paved the way not just for Warthog armoured vehicles, but also for Cassidian, one of the leading suppliers of "unmanned aerial systems" (aka drones). Here's a picture of one:

Llanelli, here we come!