Jacob Williams https://jacobwilliams.com

Pembrokeshire County Council’s excellent webcasting facility, which covers all meetings involving full council, has been a revelation since being introduced with the help of Welsh Government grant funding in 2013.

The capital grant from Cardiff Bay specifically for this purpose was much appreciated by people like me, as PCC’s appetite for openness and transparency is unlikely to have led it down the webcasting route without a helping hand and kick up the rear from the Welsh Government.

It’s ruled out such excuses as ‘misunderstandings’ or ‘misinterpretations,’ and means county residents don’t have to rely so heavily on printed minutes or the press – or travel to the council’s public gallery – to see exactly what their elected representatives get up to in their name. It also allows those from further afield to gaze in on the sort of democratic governance Cllr. Michael Williams once compared to that which you’d find in a “banana republic.”

It was introduced as a year-long trial at the May 2013 council meeting, where the minutes record that councillors resolved: “That a one year pilot for the filming of Council meetings be undertaken (with an option to renew for a further period of 12 months), with the tender submission by Public-i being accepted in that respect.”

Due to some technical issues the webcasting wasn’t ready until the December 12th meeting of full council, by which time the authority was already over six months into its contract with the webcasting service provider, Public-i.

The other day I clicked on to the council’s Public-i webcast archive (called the library) which, on every previous occasion I’ve checked provided a list with details of all previous webcasts and a link to view them.

To date, six meetings have been webcasted, starting with the inaugural Christmas meeting on December 12th through to this year’s AGM held on 9th May. I scrolled down the list and was surprised to see only five were available in the archive, and not the six I knew existed.

I soon realised that the one that was missing was from December 12th 2013 – the very first episode – and the oldest still available to be seen was the second webcast known as the Valentine’s Day Massacre, featuring QC Kerr (rhymes with car) and the infamous envelope ambush.

Scratching my head, I thought perhaps the tech gremlins had delivered Public-i another technical hitch – it was Friday the 13th, after all – and then something clicked. It was six months and a day since the meeting. Could it be that the webcasts are automatically incinerated after six months?

Possibly so, but councillors weren’t made aware of any limits to the archive facility when we voted to approve the year-long webcasting trial, and if it’s part of Banana RePublic-i’s policy included in its “tender submission,” nobody thought to bring this to councillors’ attention.

Just to jog your memories, the inaugural webcast that’s been purged from the archives was an eye-opener, and will be a real loss. It was lengthy, but offered up plenty to foster a loyal fanbase of council-watchers who’ve been coming back for more ever since.

You can guarantee some will be delighted that this, of all webcast tapes, has been put out of Joe Public’s reach because it instantly attracted notoriety for a number of reasons, chiefly the debate and vote on a proposal laid down by the author of that other website, Cllr. Mike Stoddart.

At the time, every single one of Cllr. Stoddart’s allegations of potential fraud in publicly-funded grant schemes administered by the authority had been pooh-poohed by senior officers and councillors every step of the way.

Cllr. Stoddart had, for many months, been delving into the publicly available files on a string of Pembroke Dock properties which were awarded public cash under historic property grant schemes. He had amassed evidence that ought to have been enough to convince most – albeit not council officers – that there were good reasons to suspect fraud had taken place. In order to make even further progress he requested access to extra information under the Freedom of Information act, but his attempts were blocked.

To get around this obstacle he proposed the starring motion that came to the December 12th council meeting – that all grant scheme documentation held by the council be made available on a confidential basis to all councillors with commercially sensitive details removed.

Following a heated debate which saw several show-stopping performances including Cllr. Brian Hall and a cameo from his trophy cabinet, it was voted down (27 for, 32 against) by the ruling group’s block-vote and Cllr. Owen James (see voting record here) but not before the then-responsible cabinet member, Cllr. David Pugh, launched a blistering rebuke.

It may no longer be available on the official webcast archive, but Pugh’s poisonous attack won’t be easily forgotten, tape or no tape. He accused all sorts in his bungling tirade, but it turned out that his argument was constructed almost entirely on a foundation of porkies and misinformation.

It didn’t take Old Grumpy long to rumble Cllr. Pugh following the meeting, and after taking him to task in an email copied to all councillors, Cllr. Pugh issued a grovelling apology of sorts. He was subsequently stripped of his cabinet portfolio’s grant scheme responsibilities, and when further evidence came to light earlier this year of favourable treatment to a particular contractor in a supposedly competitive tendering process, the council had little option but to call in the police, who have been investigating grant scheme issues for four months and counting.

The grant scheme debate wasn’t the only source of misinformation on show at the December 12 Christmas panto. In fact, the televised matinee was a white knuckle ride jam-packed with white lies. The festive frivolities also included the streetlighting saga, revealed only recently thanks to a constituent of mine.

Even if you’ve already seen the 3.5 hour webcast, I can understand your disappointment to learn you’ll never get the chance to relive the experience whenever the fancy takes you.

Luckily for you, JW likes to keep ahead of the game if he can, and saved a copy of the webcast before it was deleted.

I’ve even uploaded it to YouTube so you saddoes can watch it at your leisure long after Pembrokeshire County Council is consigned to the municipal scrapheap.

Don’t say I never treat you, council-watchers!