Wednesday, 7th August, 2013
UPDATE: Bend it like Beckham
On 31st January, you may recall that I uploaded a post called ‘Bend it like Beckham,’ which alluded to a Pembrokeshire Councillor who, at the time, was rumoured to have been considering switching his political affiliation by throwing in his lot with the ruling party, the IPG.
I arrived at the football-related title of this post due to a connection I made between ‘the art of surprise’ and the football transfer window, as a big story had just broken in the world of football, regarding the surprising details of the transfer of David Beckham to a new club.
In the same vein, the story was adulterated with football-related references. The date of the post, 31st January, also happened to be the closing day of English football’s mid-season transfer window, which I compared to a hypothetical councillor transfer window.
Shrouded in mystery, I didn’t name the councillor but left you in no doubt that he was of Plaid Cymru ilk, and was rumoured to be joining the IPG.
The morning after I uploaded the post I received a right rollicking down the phone from the Plaid Cymru leader, Cllr. Michael Williams. He said there was “not a grain of truth” to the rumour. Before hanging up on me. And I’m sure it was with this experience in mind, that only a couple of months ago, Cllr. Williams said the following about me in the Western Telegraph letters column: “…if you are familiar with his blog, he fails to allow facts to spoil, what he believes to be a good story.”
All I can say is it’s a good job us councillors have thick skins, and Cllr. Williams will need the thickest of the lot, because some interesting news I received today means I am now in a position where I can not only reveal who the councillor was, but that the rumour has come to fruition – it’s happened!
Stephen Joseph, the councillor for the Milford Haven Central ward, first elected at the 2012 election as a member of Plaid Cymru, has joined the IPPG.
I was convinced I was on to something when I began to establish similarities between the football player and county councillor transfer windows, and this news puts my theory on track.
As the football fans among you will know, there are only two football transfer windows in the year. And when does Cllr. Joseph commit to making the move, by officially signing up to IPG FC*? Why, during the pre-season window, of course, which opened on 1st July and closes on the 31st August!
As yet, I have no other tip-offs to report!
❏*The ‘FC’ bit stands for ‘Football Club,’ and not what you were thinking it stood for.
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I have written to Steve this evening and will not be drawn in to a mud slinging match. As I told Steve, Owain Glyndwr was never betrayed. I hope Steve is honoured with the same loyalty within the grey world of the despicable IPG. Hwyl fawr Steve.
Time for a by-election?
If Steve stood down triggering an election I don’t think it would be so much of a by-election for him as a GOODBYE election, just like it was for his predecessor!
What is it with these councillors switching all the time? And to the IPG! How will he explain it? I bet anybody a tenner it’ll be so he can get more done in his ward. What’s worse is some people will accept it as perfectly OK for their councillor to betray the faith they placed in his party connections.
I wonder which cabinet post he will be given.
With so many hot topics in the Kremlin developing, Jamie Adams and his unofficial party need all the numbers. So what role has Joseph been given? Do the decent thing and hold a by-election.
Jacob, have you contacted Cllr Michael Williams who gave you a rollicking for an apology?!
Obviously with all their boo boos recently the PIGS are trying to up their majority in Council.
Transfer record shattered by IPG, £20 million quid according to the Pembrokeshire Herald’s front page splash on Friday. Previous transfer targets must surely be feeling undervalued, truth is however it is never going to happen unlike Pennar’s Olympic standard Athletics Stadium. (Phone number in book.)
Councillor Wilcox, nice to hear from you!
I have also read the Pembrokeshire Herald’s story. It wasn’t the best of jobs, no comment printed from leader of Plaid Cymru Cllr. Michael Williams unfortunately, and not even a very long spread at that – front page, and a few inches on page 4, if I recall. Perhaps they’ll have more in next week’s paper? I’ve thought about doing a post analysing the article, because it is quite a revelation.
I think you’re totally right, when we look at other councillors, who appear to have swallowed their pride and signed up to the IPG for mere cabinet posts and committee chairmanships, this funding bid for a £20m regeneration project does rather overshadow them and their comparatively modest settlements.
However, Cllr. Joseph was keen to point out that PCC won’t be funding his brainchildren. Though he did also managed to spill to the Herald that his swimming pool idea has received support from senior officers and elected members to date.
One has to wonder how this fact, if true (and I have no reason to suspect Cllr. Joseph wasn’t recounting his pre-IPG experiences accurately) lies with an officer’s duty, as well as an elected member’s duty, to show impartiality (not favouritism or intolerance to any particular political group) and to use the resources of the authority for non-political purposes.
There is little doubt in my mind that Cllr. Joseph believes he can get this project off the ground. I, however, like you, have my doubts. A £20m grant would have been something pretty special and remarkable back when things were rosy. Given the financial constraints Britain now finds itself in, I’d suggest that the expectation of a £20m grant to benefit just one town’s regeneration is cloud cuckoo land territory.
And Tony, I’m told that on the list of applications under consideration for Welsh Government funding, your bid for an Olympic-standard athletics stadium in your Pennar ward trails behind a bid for a Las Vegas-style super-casino project within the Llanion ward. Don’t get your hopes up!
Good to see another County Councillor contributing, I thought the Celtic Tiger had eaten a few before crossing over the Irish sea on the Isle of Inishmore ferry, but Cllr Wilcox must forget the high flying Labour Party members Perkins and Hancock who have defected and been rewarded with cabinet positions carrying additional salaries.
That’s what Tony was implying with “previous transfer targets must be feeling undervalued,” without naming them. This man knows diplomacy!
And for proof that other councillors read and participate in the jacobwilliams.com nonsense, please note that the first person to comment on this article was none other than Cllr. Jonathan Preston (Penally!)
Even though the Pembrokeshire Herald didn’t print a quote from Plaid Cymru leader Cllr. Michael Williams in their coverage of this story, they did print quotes from each of the party’s three other councillors.
Cllr. Rod Bowen says there should now be a ‘by-election,’ and Cllr. Preston says he’s ‘bitterly disappointed.’
However Cllr. Rhys Sinnett’s quote ended on a lukewarm note: “…on a personal basis, I wish him well for the future.”
Can an ordinary person ask a few common sense questions?
Who in PCC considered the competing proposals and decided this one was the one to back? What were the winning considerations and were our Councillors involved in this decision?
Has the bid been given the formal backing of the Council and will this be a firm project if the bid is agreed?
What are the annual running costs of the project and how are they to be met?
I also note that at a time when the Council is seeking to manage staff cost through “vacancy management”, it still has the staff and time to invest in this bid. What are the costs of this?
What are our councillors doing? Are they involved/engaged at all?
Hi John,
I suspect a neighbouring councillor would probably be in a better position to try and answer some of your questions, but I’ll try my best based upon my knowledge of the situation:
Cllr. Joseph mentions ‘progress is underway’ and that “PCC have chosen Milford Haven as the sole bid for a £19,924,000 project to redevelop the town centre” and that the bid has “been lodged with the Welsh Assembly,” but as a member I do not recall having been made aware of any of the considerations of this project, or even that a funding bid was under consideration. Whether or not I would have been made aware of such a project in a distant ward is perhaps relevant, but I suspect there are loads of other towns that would love to stake their claim to regeneration money.
With regard to the swimming pool project, Cllr. Joseph is quoted: “I have been working on this for over 15 months. I am happy to announce that the council agreed to support the project in principle. This will be a community-led scheme supported by, but not funded by Pembrokeshire Council, who’ll back it with officer time and expertise.” If councillors were involved in this decision, it was not all councillors.
Details of the swimming pool’s costs and the project’s finer points are unknown to me, but I must admit to being in the position that I have seen further information from the interview which The Pembrokeshire Herald conducted with Cllr. Joseph, that didn’t make it to print. I alluded to this further knowledge in a previous comment I gave (two of my comments ago.)
I know about the quotes he gave because I was shown them, in full, when I was approached for a quote by the newspaper myself.
I declined, as the ward was nowhere near my ward, and I thought there would be more suitable councillors to provide comment on the story. However, in the notes that were provided to me seeking a comment, Cllr. Joseph named specific senior councillors and officers as having already given their support.
I’ll partly quote:
“This will be a community-led scheme supported by, but not funded by Pembrokeshire County Council, who’ll back it with officer time, and expertise.”
“X [followed by officer title], X, [followed by officer title], and X [followed by officer title], have been very supportive of the plans over the last twelve months of discussion.
Without their support we would not have been able to get where we are now. Elected members have also been supportive and working with me for the last few months.
Cllr. X, Cllr. X, Cllr. X and more recently [member title] Cllr. X have all played a part in helping me to increase the viability of this project. Thanks to them, this project is now a goer!” he added.”
A pertinent question comes to mind. If this is a Milford Project, bearing in mind that the town has six members, what do the others know? Are they part of this bid?
Finally, I have asked WAG if they have any knowledge of a £20 million bid for Milford Haven.
The Welsh Government has an interesting page about “Vibrant and Viable Places” on its Regeneration Scheme website. PCC apparently took part in a summit to discuss this scheme in November 2012 and also submitted evidence, Included at Section 22, in the report of a consultation process which ended in January 2013.
The WG Scheme was launched in March 2013, and applications were invited to be in by midnight on 12 July 2013. WG announced the £90m Regeneration pot in May 2013 when guidance for applicants seeking a share was published.
I can appreciate councillors not wishing to get involved in something outside their area, BUT PCC is a strategic authority and councillors are elected to do a job for the County, not just for their patch. No wonder officers do not keep them informed. I wonder how many other councillors would have had potential projects in mind but had not been told of the opportunity?
Hi Dave, I do hope that, by the next edition, the Herald will approach the council for a comment, and maybe even put these names forward, to see what response it elicits from them directly, or through a spokesperson.
John – My response about not being local to Milford was in relation to my refusal to provide a comment to the Herald, and not out of disinterest in the subject or not wishing to get involved.
As we both say, one of my interests would be that, even if this £20m bid is successful, and all of the money requested is heading to Pembrokeshire, how can it be fair that one town gets the lot, and the county’s other towns, Tenby, Narberth, Haverfordwest, Pembroke, Pembroke Dock, Fishguard/Goodwick, Neyland, Newport and St. David’s get nothing?
As you say, it also raises questions over whether or not these towns’ respective councillors and communities were requested to put forward their own case to the county council, to gain the authority’s support in any respective bids that might have been put forward.
As John says, the total pot for Wales is £90 million over 3 years with £30 million capital spend each year and £5 million max per project per year. You only have to look at other, more open, Local Authorities to see that £20 million for Milford Haven is not very likely.
John Hudson makes a good point. Questions are frequently posed on this site but I don’t recall any answers being given. All the questions should be compiled and answers sought under the FOI Act. That would keep County Hall busy for the full 20 days.
As a member representing a Milford Haven ward, all I can say is that the first I heard about these proposals was when I read about them on the front page of the Pembrokeshire Herald.
Mike, I am surprised that fellow Milford Councillors knew/know nothing about this community led scheme.
What backing has this project received from the community? I must admit to not being affected by this potential proposal, other than as a tax payer to PCC, and of course the shift it has made in council political groupings by Cllr Joseph’s switch of affiliation.
I assume that my silly questions have all been answered or considered in the bid application that has already been submitted by the Council and would at least be available to councillors. Yet again, we come back to the question of who, and how, officers of the Council can submit grant aid bids which will commit the Council to using its resources, either in cash grants or scarce staff time and money without the Council, that is councillors, being aware.
Does this reflect the Leader’s claims for improvement and change in attitude? Does anyone know anything about the Technium/E-Commerce Centre?
The Cabinet Monitoring report shows 2012/13 expenditure of £76k, income of £27k, leaving £49k to be met from Council tax. It transpires that £26k of the income arises from the council’s own use of the building through internal recharging, (i.e. Council tax,) I assume for meetings. I suggest that a potential saving may exist here.
With regard to the new Haverfordwest library, could I suggest the old Cherry Grove tax building that we bought for £600,000 could be used to decant staff from County Hall thus freeing up space for the library in the centre of town? The first plan for Cherry Grove’s future use fell at the first post and the latest was to bring in staff from outlying offices and move the Registrar’s office there with a new Wedding Ceremony suite.
What will happen to the old library site and the registrar’s site? Presumably officers in the council have plans that councillors may not be aware of.
By the look of it, Cllr Stephen Judas oops slip of the finger sorry Joseph, has got nothing concrete about this £20 million development, or the pool. I can only suggest we wait to see whether another carrot was really dangled in front of his snout.
I have just received information from WAG that all 22 Local Authorities put in a bid for the money. Without second guessing the minister, I would imagine that a swimming pool on the Rath to compete with the Meads and a lift from the docks to non existent shops in town are a long way down the list.
A fundamental question in all this is why the unelected Local Service Board prepared this bid, in private, and why, if it went forward in the Council’s name, was it not put to members for approval?
Why Milford, why not Pembroke Dock or Pembroke as they are also Communities First areas? A look at the LSB membership might give you a clue. Nobody from the south of the county is anywhere to be seen and the Docks company is sitting there as well!
David you forget the question employees at County Hall ask themselves “do county councillors have a need to know” you and I both think they do on many subjects. I do believe Bryn Parry-Jones should disclose to councillors details of all the meetings he has with outside bodies.
The motto at County Hall seems to be ‘just inform a selected few of what is going on and keep the rest in the dark’.
I find it astonishing that Officers can bid for grants which after all involves Council expenditure, without the prior approval of the Council.
Unfortunately Keanjo, what goes on within PCC is usually far from logical. The real diamonds of truth are usually hidden behind turgid currents of waffle. I am starting to wonder if the run of the mill Councillor has any place in the stitched up reality of this badly run organisation. The one thing I do know, there will be no change until the present Uriah Heep leadership is dumped. I just hope we can hold out to the next election. I expect there will be more naive members who will be corrupted by slimy offers of advancement for themselves and their wards before then. What a shame the electoral period has been extended.
I sent the letter below to all councillors. Unfortunately the irony will be lost on a few and certainly the majority of IPPG members.
PS. This will be another reason why I will be fighting hard to preserve PCC in the rocky times ahead. A return to the dire days of Dyfed would be such a retrograde step.
Jon Preston then sent a pointed letter, denouncing preferential funding for members’ wards. Those who were being solicited by the IPPG and the need for this to be formally investigated. I did think about then sending a further letter for all to read:-
I decided not to send them this letter as the first one would have overloaded some. Anyway it would only have allowed the sneering classes to denigrate the actual point. All I will say is that all members’ reputations are in tatters. I hate being tarred by the same brush and classed as a failing council. I would love to say ‘not in my name,’ but other than whinging like this, my opportunities are very limited because of the ‘stitched up’ running of PCC by a clique of non achievers.
A bit harsh there are a couple of golden nuggets who should know better. Dr. Dolittle and the housing magnate for a starter. 🙂
Jonathan, are you serious that a lift and a swimming pool on the Rath will generate Milford? Pembrokeshire sadly is a sinking ship, this county is being dictated by a council and councillors that are out of touch with their electorates.
Read it again Welshman and see if you can spot the word irony. Jonathan Nutting is clearly taking the mickey.
Jon Nutting was obviously taking the mickey but some others are being deadly serious about this idea regenerating Milford – it is all there in the bid.
Jonathan’s linking of Uriah Heep to the leadership of PCC is unfair – and an insult to Uriah Heep who are a well respected rock band. I will be meeting some of their members within the next few weeks and I am sure they will be very upset when I tell them that they have been associated with members of PCC.
Keanjo,
I think Welshman has an irony deficiency.
Something to do with a lack of humourglobin in the blood.
Very good Jacob!
There is an outfit called The Commission on Public Service Governance and Delivery coming to Haverfordwest at the Archive Building on 11 September as a drop in session from 12.00 to 18.00. They want to know what we think of Public Services. Doesn’t seem long enough to me.
I do not know whether the election process, councillor political group re-alignments, corporate governance arrangements etc. etc. fall within its remit, but then again a failed disreputable Council hardly fits.
Basically our core front line services are delivered well, in my view and with my limited experience of the services I use. However, the senior managerial lead and the councillors’ ability to play an effective part leaves a lot to be desired.
I hope that the recovery board and it member with special responsibility to undertake the review of the Constitution and scrutiny function will greatly improve the role of councillors.