Jacob Williams https://jacobwilliams.com

Thursday, 13th December, 2012

Unflagging support

Clearly the most important matter that came before today’s county council meeting was the unanimously supported adoption of the Pembrokeshire flag. The recommendation from officers on my proposal to council was that it should be flown on “appropriate occasions” such as the Queen’s Birthday, St. David’s Day, etc. This seemed a rather pointless exercise, so to make it clear and avoid wearing out the rope and pulley, I submitted a re-worded amendment that the flag be flown ‘at all times’ alongside the council’s crest, outside County Hall.

There were, however, also two other big votes on the agenda. Firstly was the motion of no confidence in cabinet member with responsibility for education, Cllr. Huw George, which failed miserably 15-33, with nine abstentions.

Plaid Cymru has caused a bit of confusion over this one. I bet their supporters are wondering, just like I am, what lies behind the lack of harmony between the noises they were making outside of the council chamber, and the actions they took inside it. In this week’s Western Telegraph letters page, Cllr. Michael Williams, the leader of Plaid Cymru on the council, sent in a letter setting out the reasons why Cllr. Huw George should accept responsibility and be gone. It’s also been published online. Anybody reading it would have been forgiven for thinking Plaid Cymru would be supporting the motion of no confidence. In the event, all of them abstained from voting, even including Cllr. Williams.

The latest Estyn report is due on Monday, and we’re told by Cllr. George that progress is being made in his department. If, as is widely expected, the report is an adverse one, those who have now put their support for Cllr. George on record, might have good reason to feel aggrieved, and so will their voters.

Cllr. Mike Stoddart’s motion was worded:

“This Council has no confidence in the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Education and the Welsh Language, Councillor Huw George.”

A recorded vote was conducted, and went as follows:

The second big vote was also brought to the council by Cllr. Mike Stoddart which, now passed, will redress the stranglehold the controlling group of the council currently has on certain committees. It’s the biggest upset in the council chamber since PG followed I. Council leader Cllr. Adams vehemently opposed it, yet seven of his group members rebelled understand the principle of fairness, and voted in favour.

It’s encouraging  that they saw the debate for what it was, and not what their leader dressed it up as. Cllr. Adams tried to put forward the view that it would be wrong to fiddle with the mechanics of the council system as and when it suits, for political advantage. I’d be the first to agree, and this is by no means an example of this in action. However, I haven’t forgotten that back in May, Cllr. Adams resurrected a cabinet post that his predecessor had previously scrapped in the name of saving money. That decision rather handily increased his gravy-train payroll, and will cost taxpayers around £90,000 this council term. This democratic decision to create a handful of unpaid additional committee positions was made by the whole council, and will cost little more than the paper and ink for a few new agendas.

It was clearly not a move designed to gain unfair political advantage, it was designed to do the exact opposite – to allow committees to reflect the Pembrokeshire electoral map, and along with the seven IPG councillors, almost all of the opposition saw the sense of justice behind it. Only one non-IPG member voted against  – Cllr. Sue Perkins. During the debate, Cllr. Adams said it was “unfortunate” that there were so many unaligned councillors in Pembrokeshire. He suggested that if they were so keen to sit on extra committees, they should think about joining the IPG. If the bruising he received in the subsequent vote is any indicator of the likely realignment of councillors, I think Cllr. Adams is highly unlikely to see his IPG numbers increase. However, as he didn’t specify whether this invitation extends to Cllr. Perkins as well, I might be proven wrong. One councillor afterwards said to me “you won’t be able to claim the IPG votes en bloc after this one!” One swallow doesn’t make a summer.

Notice of motion relating to committee placements:

“That, in order to better reflect the political balance of the authority, the number of members on each of the Democratic Services, Urgency, Senior Staff, Licensing and Corporate Governance Committees be increased by one.”

Another recorded vote was conducted, which went as follows:

The bum steer

I asked the Cllr. Adams to explain how he thought I “may have broken the Data Protection Act,” which is what he told the Western Mail when it ran a story on the Partygate scandal in October. It was a rather simple question, though it came as no surprise that he didn’t even attempt to provide an answer. The chairman didn’t allow me to press the leader for an answer, however, the handling of an earlier question on the agenda gave a hint of what I could have expected.

Cllr. Tessa Hodgson asked if and how the leader could demonstrate that he had made his recent appointments to the new Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Panel with objectivity, in-line with the Nolan principles of standards in public life. In his response, the leader failed to demonstrate not only how, but even if he had done so. For some reason, the chair gifted Cllr. Hodgson a rare second follow-up, which she used to push the leader to answer the question; at which point he gave up. “We have different views on this matter,” he told her, “and at times you have to accept that.”