Jacob Williams https://jacobwilliams.com

Plenty of council gossip since my last blogpost, almost all involving a certain someone.

Council-watchers may have been surprised to see among the councillors who tabled questions to the July full council meeting was a certain Alan Dennison!

His four-month suspension as a councillor for wholesale code of conduct breaches was, at that time, on pause whilst his appeal bid was in.

Making the most of what time he had left, one of Cllr. Dennison’s questions pulled on the thread that he exposed during his shambolic standards committee appearance.

Alan became aware, late into the misconduct proceedings, of a facility by the council’s insurers which might have allowed him to apply for indemnity to cover legal representation expenses.

Readers will recall Dennison stumbled through his late May showdown without legal representation, making do instead with his learnèd colleague, Cllr. Huw Murphy.

Given the brazen nature of Alan’s code breaches – against the clearest warnings – it’s not obvious that the council’s insurers would have entertained any bid to cover his defence costs.

For completely selfish reasons I think whatever Horseman Huw’s appearance fee was should be doubled.

Dennison is bitter that nobody at the council, especially its legal chief and monitoring officer Mrs. Rhian Young, advised him of this indemnity application process, and asked: “…why this information has only recently been disclosed upon inquiry, rather than being proactively communicated?”

The last time she gave Dennison unsolicited advice he disregarded it entirely.

Down but not out

Days after the July full council meeting, Cllr. Dennison learnt his efforts to overturn his stiff suspension were futile.

In a slam-dunk rejection letter of 28th July, the Adjudication Panel for Wales kicked out the appeal bid – finding that there was no merit in even allowing it to be considered.

All seven of Dennison’s grounds lacked any “reasonable prospect of success,” much of which the judge, Meleri Tudur, said “…indicates a disagreement by the applicant with the Standards Committee’s conclusions but does not identify an arguable error of law on their part.”

Councillors have since been informed:

“During the period of suspension, Councillor Dennison will not be entitled to undertake any duties as a councillor, attend meetings of the Council or its committees, or represent the Council in any official capacity. He will resume his duties on 29th November.”

But a desperate Dennison is trying anything to remain relevant during his enforced break.

He’s fired off questions to the upcoming October full council meeting – in his capacity as a member of the public!

If he turns up to County Hall to hear the answers to his queries about school transport funding and financial support for refugees and asylum seekers, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s attended a council meeting from the public gallery.

Will he be able to control his urges and behave himself, this time?

Huw couldn’t make it up

Cllr. Huw Murphy clearly isn’t one for allowing the dust to settle. He also doesn’t appear to recognise the gravity of his colleague’s misconduct.

In a case of awful optics, Dennison’s former group leader Murphy has tabled a motion which, if approved, would give councillors the power to directly refer planning applications to the planning committee.

This would abolish the checks and balances of the current system which Dennison unsuccessfully abused in a bid to refer his mate’s planning application – in which he had his own patent and widespread prejudicial interests – to the planning committee.

Cllr. Murphy’s bid to amend the council’s constitution was last month debated with little support at committee, which recommended the proposal be rejected when the final decision is made at the October 15th full council meeting.

What will Huw table next? A proposal allowing councillors to sign documents on a colleague’s behalf with impunity, perhaps.

Good cop? Bad cop?

The council’s eventual publication of the extensive case files in the Dennison standards proceedings released a treasure trove.

There are redactions, but it’s still a goldmine – some 428 pages amounting to 15MB in the combined PDF file.

Of particular interest are the ombudsman’s interview transcripts with the accused.

We all knew Dennison retained Murphy for his 26th May standards committee appearance, but he seems to have been on speed dial throughout the lengthy proceedings – including as a hand-holder at Alan’s formal interview on 6th August, 2025.

Huw famously never tells anyone of his former police career – but the transcript suggests he isn’t a stranger to tape-recorded grillings, only this time he was on the other side of the desk.

At one point he interjects in Dennison’s rant about me and the late author of that other website Cllr. Mike Stoddart, saying: “Can, can I…Alan, can you stop there?”

Elsewhere Murphy refers to us blogging councillors again, telling the ombudsman’s investigator: “…we would still probably summons them to come and give evidence.”

I’m sorry to say my letter must’ve got lost in the post.

Romantic getaway

In a twist for the ages, it turns out that Dennison’s fortnight’s holiday to Mexico with the planning applicant, Mr. Lee Bridges, was in fact the newly-betrothed Bridges couple’s honeymoon!

When asked at interview “do you have a friendship with Lee Bridges and if so how would you describe your friendship?” Dennison replied:

“…yes, we’ve been away on holiday together as, as Mr Williams has dug deep and found out we went, and that was because it was his honeymoon and I was able to make his honeymoon happen, erm, because we got the hall done up and, er, that’s where he got married. So, in terms of that, yes, quite obviously we are, we are friendly, we’re on friendly terms…”

There can’t be many councillors who’d volunteer this sort of detail during a formal investigation under legal powers.

But there must be even fewer businessmen who’d bring their investor and their investor’s wife on their honeymoon.

Oh, and I had no idea about this until reading the transcript – which is fantastic reading. Highly recommended. I’ve hardly scratched the surface!

Imitation game

You’ll recall a despairing Dennison made a hopeless report to the ombudsman against me for what he called my “vexatious” part in his downfall.

I’m reliably informed that, now with extra time on his hands, he’s taken to plastering Facebook with references to me.

He’s even been seen pleading with strangers to email me photos of weeds and potholes they spot when walking their dogs.

Out-of-action-Alan is apparently referring to JW online as PCC’s “Temu cabinet member for highways.”

Sources familiar with the suspended councillor’s state of mind – and the Chinese discount retailer – have suggested Dennison’s oblique Temu reference isn’t intended to be flattering.

Grimes against humanity

Monkton county councillor and 647th mayor of Pembroke, Jonathan Grimes, has sunk his gnashers into a rather hot potato.

In a videoed interview the Tory councillor suggests a troubled housing estate in his ward should be demolished and rebuilt:

“If I had my way, if I had a magic wand, do you know what I’d like to do? I’d like to move everybody out of the courts, knock it all down, build decent social housing that you get everywhere else in the country, that will actually make it a place that people are proud to live in.”

Not the sort of publicity he was seeking seven months out from an election!

Some of the residents, deeply insulted, are fighting back – especially against the implication that they have no pride.

Rumours that Cllr. Grimes met the backlash by saying “my electorate is revolting” are unconfirmed.

Now I suspect even the least charitable sort knows Grimes’ basic sentiment was: in an ideal world every one of his constituents would live in a brand new home.

It brings to mind one of my favourite political quotes, Ronald Reagan’s: “If you’re explaining, you’re losing!”

STOP PRESS

Pembroke Dock councillor Joshua Beynon has just announced he’ll be resigning his county council seat on 31st October.

With reference to his unspecified new direction, Beynon’s Halloween resignation statement says: “…I have been awarded a fantastic new opportunity, the terms of which mean I cannot continue as a councillor.”

In what must surely be a record, it’ll trigger the seventh by-election of the 2022-2027 council term, following the deaths in office of Reg Owens, Peter Morgan, Jordan Ryan, Mike Stoddart, Brian Hall, and the resignation of Andrew Edwards.