Jacob Williams https://jacobwilliams.com

The summer recess was but a cherished memory last week as the municipal machinery roared back into action at County Hall, and the committees and their members hit the ground running.

Last Tuesday’s planning committee meeting was a lengthy affair. The twelve item-strong agenda included nine applications for ten wind turbines, a solar energy farm, a huge housing development at Slade Lane in Haverfordwest, and a Sainsbury’s supermarket and petrol station on the adjoining land.

The solar application had been withdrawn prior to the meeting, as had one of the turbine proposals. Of the remaining green energy applications it was resolved by the committee to conduct a site inspection for two, and to refuse six.

A planning agent, speaking in support of one of the wind turbines, accused the council of having a ‘clear out’ of controversial applications. This charge was denied by the Head of Planning – the story I’m told is that the mammoth agenda came into being as the applications had to be presented to the first available committee meeting.

As the summer recess meant no meeting was held in August, the length and content of the agenda shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anybody, and splitting the meeting over two days was a practical suggestion I heard from numerous councillors and members of the public on the day.

As well as supporters and objectors, the packed public gallery also contained journalists from the BBC, the Western Telegraph, and the Pembrokeshire Herald. The Herald’s coverage of the two Slade Lane developments, which were granted unanimous approval, was embellished by quotes from long-serving Haverfordwest councillor, Peter Stock.

I must say, it came as news to me that the county town was in such a desperate need for equine accommodation. Cllr. Stock is quoted by the Herald as saying: “I have looked at this very carefully and although we need to look after the nearby residents we have to consider that there are not enough plots for horses in Haverfordwest.”

I refuse to make any jokes about horses, horsemeat, and the close proximity to the new supermarket.

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Extraordinary meeting

On Friday, the extraordinary meeting I requisitioned with four other councillors was held.

The report to the meeting on the requisition by the director of development made no attempt to down-play the potential ramifications of the council’s ‘ongoing failure’ of gypsy and traveller policy, which is only a handful of months old.

With unanimous support the director’s recommendations were adopted, however, it wasn’t without the council leader’s expression of dissatisfaction that I had felt it necessary to call the meeting in the first place.

Cllr. Adams said that I could have put forward the content of the requisition at the next ordinary meeting of council – which is in October. This was after I had thanked all members for attending, and explained that, had I not called the extraordinary meeting, the wheels that we were setting in motion on Friday would not have been set in motion until the December meeting at the earliest.

We’re all now quite aware that keeping track of dates is not one of our leader’s strongest points – even so, being questioned over the best use of the authority’s resources by a councillor who felt it was appropriate to submit historical travelling expenses claims four years out of date, is a bit rich.

I could have gone further and said that even if I had tabled this business at the October meeting, it would have been quite possible (even likely, given the fate suffered by other councillors’ proposals) that the first opportunity councillors would have to vote on the topic would have been February 2014 – following rounds of committee delegations, or as the member for Dinas Cross famously puts it, being ‘kicked into the long grass.’

As it is, the director’s recommendations – laid out below – were supported unanimously by the council, and this failing policy has been recognised, and attempts to put it right can now commence.

(a) That the search for potential additional gypsy traveller sites be continued including engagement with the gypsy traveller community in this respect.

(b) That land be acquired adjacent to Kingsmoor Common by agreement or by using compulsory purchase powers in order to facilitate exchange of common land with authority delegated to the Director of Development for this purpose.

(c) That a progress report be presented to October and December Council.

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Bitter lemons

Always wishing to report on jacobwilliams.com the things that really matter, I’ve yet to meet a councillor who appreciates the lemons that are customarily sliced in with the water jugs at council meetings. It’s unpleasant, but nobody (and rightly so, I might add) has had the courage to question this practise.

Against a backdrop which is littered with monsters such as the pay and grading saga, and the child safeguarding issues, it’s rather like the captain worrying about the curtains on the Titanic.

That said, officers must be just as guilty as councillors of putting up with the unpalatable lemon water in total silence, for fear of being thought a fool of, as they, too, drink the same offering.

Following Friday’s extraordinary meeting I overheard a councillor asking a member of catering staff if the lemons could be left out of the council’s water jugs in future.

He recounted the displeasure a mouth of lemon-infused water has with quite some charisma. I couldn’t have done a better job myself.

Realising that the first shot had just been fired before my eyes in a battle that I had long been waiting for somebody else to start, I seized on the councillor’s bravery and leant credit to his suggestion that the ‘policy’ of adding lemon slices might be revisited, as nobody was known to approve of it.

Well, if a lady’s word is as good has her bond, then a debt of gratitude can be owed to the councillor who shall remain nameless, as a commitment was given to forgo the citrus slices.

I have heard a theory that the lemons served as a bittering agent to effectively slow-down the mouths of over-active speakers. I could never believe such deviant thoughts would enter into anybody’s mind in County Hall. I may revise this view, though, if at the next meeting, the water tastes of almonds.