Jacob Williams https://jacobwilliams.com

The week before last I received an email from a constituent who had been watching the webcast of the infamous December full council meeting.

The meeting went down in the history books for Cllr. David Pugh’s bungling tirade against Cllr. Mike Stoddart. In a nasty, over-the-top speech based on a catalogue of untruths, Cllr. Pugh tried – and spectacularly failed – to defend allegations Cllr. Stoddart had made over the probity of grant schemes administered by the council. However my constituent was interested in contributions made to the meeting by Cllr. Pugh’s colleague, fellow cabinet member Cllr. Huw George, on an unrelated topic.

It was during the very brief debate over the first motion on the agenda, which was Goodwick councillor Gwilym Price’s bid to extend the street lighting provision by an extra hour in Goodwick to coincide with ferry port arrivals.

That there was any debate at all owed little thanks to chairman Cllr. Arwyn Williams, who, following Cllr. Price’s opening remarks and the customary “sorry, no-can-do” response from cabinet member Cllr. Huw George, was eager to take it to the vote. This was the very first council meeting to be webcast, and it’s clearly evident that Arwyn had already asked for a show of hands before muggins here chips in.

Muggins chipped in because of something Cllr. Huw George said about the main reason the proposal couldn’t be implemented – it was the high cost due to the complexity of the council’s street lighting setup. He said:

“I note that in the County Echo last week he [Cllr. Price] made a statement which said the cost savings [sic.] would only be around £500-600 and I think it’s a small price to pay. Well I can give him the exact price if he wants to. It’s £648.

But I wouldn’t want members to be kept in the dark about the full price of implementing this notice of motion, the capital expenditure for changing the lights – because each bulb has to be had especially designated – is £15,785. So the £648 has to be added to the £15,785, and I hope that shed lights on the matter and I move the recommendation [to reject the motion] as printed on page 35.”

After I prised the chairman away from taking an immediate vote, I said I found the large costs and the need to replace the necessary bulbs ‘incredible.’

Could it have been a slip of the tongue and he meant to say new timers? Well, in response to my own contribution, Cllr. George left little doubt that he knew what he was talking about, and his bulbs from his timers: “That’s just the way it is chairman, the way the bulbs have been bought, they’ve been bought specifically for that job. It’s not a matter of changing timers, it’s the way the system works.”

Cllr. Mike Evans then said: “I’d like to come in and enquire on that as well then, we have the director of transportation here who could perhaps clear this up. Is it the bulbs or is it the timers that are associated with these street lights? I think the cabinet member might be a little bit confused as he’s trying to shine so much light on this for us members that he’s actually forgotten the topic, so maybe the director could help us on this?”

The director’s services weren’t called upon by the chairman, instead, he duly roped in council leader, Cllr. Jamie Adams. When I transcribed Cllr. Adams’ remarks from the webcast it became clear that he furnished the chamber with a vintage example of his padded-out responses. Verbal diarrhoea replete with his trademark management-speak terminology, Cllr. Adams said:

“Chair, thanks. If I can add a bit of clarity to Cllr. Evans and Cllr. Williams’ points. Cllr. George is quite correct in terms of the setting up of bulbs at the factory effectively, and that is undertaken to take account of the timing issues that we have made with regards to our policy within the council, and if we refer back to that time, to that point, the discussion was around the timings that we sought to achieve.

Now they are pre-set at the factory as I’ve indicated, for midnight to 5.30. Now they are not exact in terms of their operation, and they do take account of atmospheric conditions, moonlight etcetera, so they are not an exact science, but they seek to provide light where it is necessary, so that’s the first point to make so Cllr. George is quite correct…”

One wonders just how confused councillors would have been had Cllr. Adams not dispensed his “bit of clarity.”

Someone who may have been able to add a bit of clarity – given the chance – is Cllr. Phil Baker. As I remarked in a post at the time, he also wanted to have his say, and signalled to the chairman his desire to speak. With years in civil engineering including road-building projects, Cllr. Baker’s input could have been helpful. So what did Arwyn do? Prevented him, of course!

“No no no no no, we’ve had enough debate on this, we’ll move on, thank you,” he says to Cllr. Baker, before asking his own party leader to sum-up. You can then see the vice chair, Cllr. Tom Richards (now chairman) informing our Arwyn that it’s actually Cllr. Price’s motion to sum-up, and the leader doesn’t always have a divine right to the last say. When it came to the vote, Cllr. Price’s proposal was, rather predictably, defeated.

After watching the meeting webcast, my constituent sent the council a Freedom of Information request for all makes and models of bulbs used in street lighting.

After he received the council’s response (which has also been published on the FoI disclosure log) my constituent set about emailing the bulb manufacturers to ask if any of their listed products “had any type of programmable built in timer.”

I won’t reel them all off, but the council provided a list of forty light bulb models from five different brands, ranging from the exotically named “Delux D/E 18W / 840 lumilux Cool White G24q-2,” to the more humble “SOX-E26W.”

All five bulb brands came back with a response, and it was at this point my constituent made first contact with me, saying in his email: “I think as Councillor George states, the responses may “shed lights” on “the way the system works” with regard to the light bulbs used by PCC!”

Osram

I can advise that the products you list do not have a built in programmable timer. These items are light bulbs and programmable timers are generally either part of the outer fitting, or remotely wired.

Venture Lighting

No, none of the below have a timer built in.

Philips

Those are all high intensity discharge lamps, none of which contain a timer.

GE Lighting

Those lamps haven’t got any timer built in.

So far, so convincing, but it was the response from Sylvania that interested JW most. A company with American roots that “introduced the first linear, or tubular, fluorescent lamp ever made” would surely know more about lighting than the Maenclochog minister, Rev. Huw George?

Sylvania

Can you explain exactly what you are looking to achieve? I don’t fully understand your question about an integral timer? I am not aware of any manufacturer that offers this solution. These lamps are typically used for large area lighting such as warehouses, car parks, roads etc. where switching is controlled by a central system or photocells on the unit.

Unlike Huw George or Jamie Adams, I don’t profess to be an expert on street lighting, and I’m also quite happy to admit I don’t know if the eye-watering £16k capital expenditure is accurate or if it’s an over or under-estimation.

But what I am pretty confident of is the assumed authority with which Cllr. George spoke on the topic – even when questioned – was seat-of-his-pants bravado. The sincerity with which he wings it is quite skilful, actually. And it’s not an isolated occurrence from the deputy leader who also finds time to be a reverend. Whether it’s his mastery of Newtonian physics, devising ground-breaking economic theorems, or displaying mystifying mathematical prowess, the ecclesiastical egghead gets all too easily carried away when speaking to a brief.

And he’s still at it!

Let’s also not forget the supporting ‘bit of clarity’ (which was anything but) offered up by Cllr. Adams, who leapt to his deputy’s side yet appeared to know little more on street lighting than the number-crunching clergyman.

And then there’s the supposedly impartial role of chairman, who was happy to facilitate Cllr. Adams’ ‘bit of clarity’ during the roughly eight minute debate, but then immediately afterwards cut Cllr. Phil Baker dead exclaiming “we’ve debated this in depth.”

The worst part of it all is that, well-informed or not, the ruling independent party more often doesn’t even need to present an argument, let alone win it. Independent group councillors – not all of them, but most – attend secret get-togethers ahead of full council meetings, where their party line is established.

The prime attendee at these meetings has always been the supposedly impartial council chairman.

Often what you see on the webcast has been dress-rehearsed a few days beforehand at one of these secret meetings, and when it comes to the real thing, the hands of ruling party members can sometimes be seen shooting up in the air to vote before others get a look-in.

The AGM just the other week provided a quintessential example. Cllr. Viv Stoddart was denied the opportunity to nominate her fellow unaffiliated councillor, Tony Brinsden, for one of the four vacant licensing committee vice-chairmanship posts (unpaid.)

She was denied because the chairman, Cllr. Tom Richards (or ‘Tyrannical Tom’ as he’s now known at County Hall water coolers) said she was too late, as the four nominations that had been made by Cllr. Daphne Bush had already been voted upon by a show of hands, all within three seconds!

Welcome to democracy, Pembrokeshire style!

❏The segment of the AGM webcast featuring Tyrannical Tom’s vote-but-not-a-vote (and Cllr. Paul Miller’s protest) has been posted on the Radio Pembrokeshire Facebook page. It’s attracted 53 comments – check it out!