Liar, Liar, Townhall on fire (pt3)

Eccles famously said "Everybody's got to be somewhere". Last Monday night I, and probably Ammanford Town Council's eight Councillors and Town Clerk, wished I were somewhere else.

By means of an update to "Liar, Liar, Townhall on fire (pt2)", I'm just going to focus just on the doubling-down on one set of lies. Absorbing the whole of 'Fawlty Towers'-cum-'Vicar of Dibley'-cross-'Dad's Army' car crash of the Full Council Meeting of 9th March 2020 in one go would just be too much. Trust me, I did the time!

Jumping into mystery item "6) Correspondence - Requiring a Response", I was intrigued from the Agenda as to what would be presented. Good practice would dictate that each matter would be titled, along with the date it was received.  Councillors ought to be keeping an eye on things that require a response, and publishing the date is essential to avoid the multiple run-away calamities that the Council has orchestrated since 2016. Sadly, those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

This portion of the meeting looked like a raid of an in-tray from a random desk, made on a low budget for the inebriated watching late night telly. Charity letters were described in general terms, as if they had never been read after opening, and then ditched on the grounds of "out of ward".

I have some empathy with the dilemma of how a Community or Town Council can handle chugging by email/letter. Some residents are struggling to pay their Council Tax, it is collected by statute and arrears is a serious, criminal, thing. Is it right that Councillors have the discretion to give away public money on a whim? No resident can opt out. Each of the charities that "we got a letter from..." seemed very worthy, helping stroke victims, supporting the bereaved and a children's hospital charity. I expect some of them operated within Ammanford's geographical limits, but having a Garnant, Cardiff or Haverfordwest letter-head was enough to ditch.

Not-so nice

And then we moved on to what the Clerk said were "not so nice letters from the ICO". He rattled and floundered over four case numbers, blurting 6th & 13th February dates for two, mumbling February dates for the other two and summarising that "all requests have been dealt with in February". Due to the frenzied nature of this part, and the seriousness of doubling-down on the lies, my notes have been cross-checked with two other members of the public. Each independently recorded the same.

I recognise FS50837144. The ICO passed this case to its solicitors on 24 January 2020 for High Court action, after running out of patience and the Council refusing to respond to an extension to a second Information Notice. It relates to the dodgy £17,000 (+/-20%) CCTV system over the splashpads, that didn't work in the summer/when the leaves were on the trees and is now defunct. Here's the sorry trail on WhatDoTheyKnow, now over a year old. The ICO confirmed, when contacted on 13 March 2020, that no correspondence has been received from the Council relating to FS50837144.

I also recognised FS50904938. The ICO published a Decision Notice on 26 February, upholding a complaint that the Council has breached the FOIA and ordering it to provide the information within 35 calendar days. The ICO confirmed, when contacted on 13 March, that they had received a response from the Clerk on 9 March. They told the Clerk (also on 9 March) that he must provide the information requested to the complainant, not themselves, saying that replying on the WhatDoTheyKnow platrform would fulfil this. I estimate it would take less than 15 minutes to dredge out the dates from previous correspondence received and publish them. The entirety of this request has fallen within the tenure of the new Town Clerk.

In Pt1 I showed the former Plaid Mayor (forced to resign) had lied directly to the Council and its AGM, with a runaway process enabled by Councillors over many years.

As a update to Pt2, the partly fulfilled FOI request confirmed that the new full-time Town Clerk/RFO was the one to make the deluded claim that the Council "always ensure that policies and procedures are adhered to". And yet here we have an absolute case of the Council not complying with a policy, nor the law!

Furthermore, we have a full Council meeting being told that all matters were dealt with in February, but a simple fact check showed at least one hasn't been attended to, and another was handled that day, in March! March is not February, and February is not March. Lies are not the truth.

One has to wonder what else is being lied about? How about the lies of omission, with the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales having re-opened its investigation into maladministration and unresolved complaints. Action was ordered in January, not done in February and extended into March. An absolute deadline of Thursday 5th March 2020 was given to put the PSOW report onto the website (with some other missing Minutes). The frenzy of Wednesday 4th March (1543hrs) botched even those basic instructions.

Dear Reader, Ammanford Town Councillors and Ammanford Town Clerk:

 ICO != PSOW

Finally, after 14 months of subterfuge and deception, the good people of Ammanford (and beyond) can read the PSOW's investigation report from ATC's website, if they know where to look for it, mis-described as ICO Report. At least the Council isn't serving up 517 references to crypto-miners and iffy baby-sitting services, at the moment (we'll save that nugget for "Web of deceipt", to come in a future blogpost).

I'm perplexed by the behaviour of the new full-time Clerk/RFO. I'm not one to call a person names behind another's back, and these colours don't run. The new Clerk/RFO has shown he is inept and ill-prepared. He may have won 162 points at interview, but blatantly lying to Council and members of the public is indefensible, constituting gross misconduct. A member of the public even asked the Council to attend to these FOI matters, as Minuted from 3 February 2020 meeting of full Council. There is no excuse.

Wrong trousers/I'm on probation

The Meeting had been told a little earlier (in the ratifying Minutes debacle) to disregard the Minutes of the Personnel meeting, which they claimed had been published in error. The source of this confusion is One Voice Wales, who have briefed their membership in direct conflict with the FOIA.

At a recent One Voice Wales training session to Ammanford Town Council they responded to a Councillor's question stating that the Minutes of Personnel sub-committee should be withheld from disclosure. This was *previously* clarified by the Interim Town Clerk (about February-April of 2019) with direct advice from the ICO (summary: public records must be disclosed but some information may need to be redacted to comply with DPA2018/GDPR). This advice was sought as the previous Interim Clerk tried to clear up the mess at the Council for not complying to the law in response to ten FOI requests, namely to publish Minutes (since August 2016) - culminating in the issuing of an "exceptional" Information Notice, rolled into Decision Notices FS50755792 & FS50711667.

It was Minuted from the Personnel meeting of 13 February, when discussing the contract of current clerk:

The first employee review was to be undertaken in February 2020.
The Probationary review was to be undertaken in June 2020.

(bizarrely the Clerk was signing his own incomplete contract three months after taking up the post, and it took ~45mins to agree the drop from 21% -> 3% pension)

It is always difficult to accept that a bad hiring decision has been made. People are involved. Perhaps now it is inevitable that the Council must reflect on their skewed scoring methodology and question how candidates made it through to interview when their claimed skill-set didn't meet the minimum job specification. I understand there's still an open FOI request regarding the process, and the (only) advert for the job that appeared in the South Wales Guardian weeks after the closing date.

Liar, Liar, Townhall on fire (pt2)

Adam Price recently sought attention for his idea to make lying by politicians a criminal offence. Less than 100m from his office, Plaid Cymru controlled and dominated Ammanford Town Council must be doing him proud.

Last week's South Wales Guardian front page (3 ex mayors quit in Ammanford Town Council walkout) had this astonishing quote:

A spokesman for the town council said: “Ammanford Town Council endeavours to uphold standards.
“We always ensure that policies and procedures are adhered to.”

Always? Always??

Almost fifty years ago, the Local Government Act 1972 laid out some pretty basic requirements, including when and how to call Meetings, to record business transacted and to make records available for public inspection. Ammanford Town Council haven't been complying with the Act for years (since 2016), acknowledged through the course of eleven complaints when the Council stated that it did not hold minutes of some meetings  - "if they were ever in existence".

Twenty years ago, the Freedom Of Information Act 2000 came into force, giving a legal right of access for citizens to see records held by public bodies, within a defined timescale. Solicitors acting for the Information Commissioner began preparing an application under section 54 to "deal with the authority as if it had committed a contempt of court" on 24 January 2020. The Council has ignored a second Information Notice - and multiple extensions that compelled it to respond - to conduct a simple Internal Review, accounting for some ~£20K of public money (the dodgy splashpad/park CCTV that didn't work when the leaves were on the trees). And then there's a separate case officer who compelled them to respond within 10 working days, on 8 Feburary, to provide simple dates from complaints/correspondence they are trying to cover up.

Seven years ago, the Local Government (Democracy) (Wales) Act 2013 was enacted, requiring Town & Community Councils to have websites, issue notices electronically, publish Minutes and documents referenced within them on their website. Statutory Guidance was issued in May 2015. The obligations aren't particularly onerous. It barely applies 1990's technology/practices to the 1972 record keeping. The Council's failings in this area led to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales investigating, fining (twice) and declaring the Council to be in serious maladministration. The Report was suppressed, the actions ordered haven't been followed, the follow-up complaint ignored. The Ombudsman gave them an ultimatum to comply by 19 January 2020 and has yet again given them a further extension to comply with the requirements to publish Minutes and referenced documents by the end of this week.


It is notable that the front page story of "3 ex Mayors quit" is over two months old - it happened in December 2019, the resignations were accepted and ratified on 14 January 2020 in a seven minute Extraordinary Meeting Council. Aside from the four observers present, the general public (and press) were none the wiser. Publishing Draft Minutes electronically is a trivial task. Scanning and uploading the ratified/signed copy should take less than ten minutes. So why are Minutes still being withheld for 3-4 months?

And even more curiously, why has the Agenda for 2020-01-14 EGM vanished from the website? The Guidance states that documents need to be be available and archived for a reasonable length of time.


Over a year ago the PSOW ordered the Council to adopt and publish a Complaints procedure, by April 2019. This was half-adopted by the deadline, with Councillors bickering about some of the grammar months later. The procedure requires complaints to be formally acknowledged within 5 days. Only after thirteen weeks of deadlock can one ask the PSOW to consider investigating (the form now requires that a complainant discloses what legal action they have pursued or considered, before the Ombudsman will think of getting involved).  The PSOW has two open investigations, with another just resolved. How could three complaints reach the PSOW if Ammanford Town Council "always" adheres to their policies?

On 13 February the Council wanted to increase the precept by a further 43%. The Council was unsure of how much Reserves it held (?!). Basic financial controls and reporting would mean that any competent body should *always* know how much money it has. The Council now employs a full-time Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer. As the Americans say "You do the math"!

I've joked previously whether we should drain the swamp from the bottom or the top. Are festering Ministers, or Prime Ministers, to blame? B-Team politicians in the Senedd? Or do we accept brazen lies, dishonesty and incompetence at the heart of our Communities; and then "always" expect them to develop integrity on way up the greasy pole?

Perhaps the Councillors needs to reflect more on their illustrious party leader Adam's words “Honesty is the most important currency in politics. We have to protect it, before it reaches moral bankruptcy.” Always.

Half-job Jo skips the ICO

Carmarthenshire County Council managed to land a puff piece in the South Wales Guardian, suggesting complaints were down in 2018-19 compared to a year earlier. Drill down a little and it seems complaints to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales had more than doubled (23->48) for the same period.

Complaints going "up a level" are quite exceptional. It takes a robust mindset to "exhaust" the Council's own complaint and review procedures before the PSOW will consider even accepting a case, let alone investigate. A Council officer is quoted as saying:

"The positive is that none of them were upheld."

Curiously, none of the five Decision Notices issued by the Information Commissioner's Office in the same period were referenced in the report. Four of which were upheld (in part or whole). How odd.

ICO Decision Notices tend to be only issued when a complainant specifically requests one - as the Information Commissioner is very busy and the backlog within her Office is typically 2-4 months to get a case first assigned. Investigations can easily stretch to well over a year, by which point many complainants have given up. However, the ICO is very clear that a Complaint should register long before they rule:

Links here for the "Compliments & Complaints Annual Report 2018/19", the ICO's "Action we've taken" in relation to Carmarthenshire County Council and the ICO's "Section 45 - Code Of Practice - request handling".

Image credits:
Business photo created by kjpargeter - www.freepik.com
Carmarthenshire County Hall cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Nigel Davies - geograph.org.uk/p/23208
Lovingly munged with the GIMP

The Parking Pirates of Llangrannog Bay

The BBC have today picked up on the dissent in picturesque Llangrannog. A Sussex company is siphoning funds directly out of this small Ceredigion community. Like buccaneers of yore, One Parking Solution seem to have little regard for the Law.

I had hoped to give POPLA due chance to finish their "independent appeal" process, and to commission a snazzy pirate-ship themed artwork, with BPA logos for portholes and a mast to hang One Parking Solution very own jolly-roger from, but it seems good-Councillor Gwyn James has caught the eye of the newsmen so I have to careen. Arr!

Let's pick out just three unlawful wheezes of the £70,000 helicopter owning Parking Pirates of Llangrannog Bay:

1)  No planning consent

Ceredigion County Council began enforcement action against One Parking Solution on the 21st August 2019, for failing to hold planning consent for their advertising signs at the site. This is a breach of s224 of 1990 Town & Country Planning Act. The Development Management Team Leader (Compliance)'s initial investigation did unearth an application in the system, but as of 28th August 2019:

"The application has not been through the validation stage to date. As soon as it is considered valid, then it will show on the web site."

Be sure to keep ye good eye to the spyglass here for Ceredigion's planning site, SA44 6SL is the postcode given.

If you'd like to read more about when/why one needs planning consent for outdoor advertisements, then Newport County Council's planning site has a helpful link to the Advertisement Control booklet - prepared for DfT & Welsh Ass for Wales.

This cutlass carries a bit of a sting, the £1,000 fine on pg27. Arr!

I'd be very surprised if it wasn't in the public interest of Ceredigion's local electorate to make sure that their Planning officers apply to a Magistrate, in short-order, rather than swinging the lead. Though some might think a good keel-hauling would be more expedient.

Arr!

2) Not paying Business rates

Much of our society rests on proper, lawful, behaviour. Taxes may not be welcome, but they fund the nurses that care. Taxes pay for the equipment and salaries of the firefighters who will literally risk their own lives to enter a burning building, vehicle or ship to rescue someone in distress. Taxes pay for police, teachers, judges, courts, the list goes on. And yet, One Parking Solution doesn't feel it needs to pay Business rates in Llangrannog.

Please, don't trust some randomo on the internet. Pick up the phone and ask Ceredigion County Council's  Revenue section:

"Is it against the law not to pay Business rates?"

I did :) You'll receive an emphatic answer, and then some qualifications about hereditaments and reliefs etc.

Gavin Chait has performed a great public service in using the WhatDoTheyKnow.com platform to ask  Councils, under the Freedom Of Information Act of 2000, about non-domestic/business rates up and down the country. Here are the Q2 listings for Ceredigion. If you trundle down through the listings something is odd, there is no mention of the car park operated by One Parking Solution.

Taking a look at the many complaints on TripAdvisor directed at Y Llong/The Ship you'll see that the car park has been sold off, which we can match to the entry for "land at the south side of, The Ship Inn" at the HM Land Registry. The picaroons at One Parking Solution have been so quick to want to seize their ill-gotten treasure, to bury in their bulging chests in Sussex, that they haven't even thought of tossing a few pieces to the Crown. One would have expected that the provost and quartermaster, in the guise of conveyancing solicitor and auditing accountant, ought to have spoken of this deception sooner - perhaps a case of no prey, no pay?

Ceredigion County Council's  Revenue section escalated this on 22nd August 2019 for joint enforcement with the Valuation Office Agency. The Rateable Value is now to be assessed according to the VOA 2017 practice note, using evidence of parking charge notices issued by ANPR as a minimum basis for determining in a 168 hour/week, backdated since the site was purchased.

Y Llong's sutler may look forward to a lowering of his own dues.

Arr!

3) Unauthorised usage of  ICO logos

Those souls brave enough to walk the plank of One Parking Solution's internal appeal process may have not expected to receive any quarter, their appeal was bound to be rejected. They may have felt further intimidated by the inclusion of the logo of the Information Commissioner's Office as the red flag was hoisted. What does the Canadian lady's office have to do with parking? Clearly One Parking Solution were seeking to give their sea-sick assessment an imprimatur of authority as they crimped more for loot.

Following a complaint last week, the ICO confirmed in writing this morning that this use was not sanctioned and

"have referred this to our legal team who will be contacting them shortly"

Arr!

Avast! 

As I run a shot across the bow, why is being lawful important (as a floppy haired buffoon found out just last week)? Well, this hempen halter is first weaved by association:

"4.3 Under the Code you must keep to all the requirements laid down by law. The Code reflects our understanding of the law at the date of publication. However, you are responsible for familiarising yourself with the law on any activities covered by the Code."

BPA AOS Code of Practice

One Parking Solution is obliged to follow the terms of the British Parking Association Approved Operator Code of Practice (current version 7 - January 2018). So any Parking Charge Notice issued to date is moot. Arr!

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The breach of KADOE contract with the DVLA goes much further. I'll outline the grounds for scuttling One Parking Solution in a few days.



(A tad of background; I was asked to help by a youngster who visited, put his pieces of silver into yon parking machine and the coinage fell through. The youngster tried repeatedly, and then attempted to use the technology - "downloading" the app as directed. Visitors familiar with graceful Llangrannog Bay will know that mobile signal is an aspiration, at best. Sick of the timeouts, the youngster thought "Scupper that", weighed anchor and departed, with crew. Llangrannog having attracted visitors saw them rebuffed, unlikely to return)

A Swashbuckle Salute to the landlubbers at A Pirate's Glossary of Terms, for expanding my vocabulary this lunch-break.

Carmarthenshire timebandits strike again

Are Carmarthenshire County Council watching old videos for the end of term? Is TimeBandits a favourite on heavy rotation? I've long hypothesised that they have a time machine in County Hall -  it's the only rational explanation for many of the mysterious ways that Carmarthenshire County Council  "works". The supporting evidence is growing.

Yesterday a Public Notice was tacked up on many telegraph poles in Margaret Street (pictured), dated tomorrow.

It warns of seven weeks of mayhem, with the closure of 66m of road from the junction with College Street, commencing (next) Monday 22 July 2019. Even with most residents and business owners wanting an improvement to the daily traffic flow/congestion, the letter raises more questions:

Plaid claim credit at Ammanford Town Council

There are tall-tales, and there are real whoppers. 'Plaid Cymru | Party of Blame' are really pushing out the boat with their electioneering for Ammanford Town Council, in the upcoming Myddynfych ward By-Election. 

If 'Plaid Cymru | Party of Blame' have to ask, then you probably don't know

"What has Plaid done?" candidate Rhodri Jones's pamphlet has the bare-faced cheek to ask. Before laying claim to some fabulous projects, way beyond the scope (and competence) of Ammanford Town Council:

• Roundabout - "complete"?! Diggers on the pavement this week, started in October 2017, overground works had their own 1st anniversary celebrations and dedicated prose; a Carmarthenshire County Council and Welsh Government project
• Ammanford AFC - Carmarthenshire County Council cash of £125K with no planning scrutiny for the new stand and no reference to ATC contribution
• Council Hwb - Carmarthenshire County Council toxic de-branding project
• Margaret St Junction - ATC have no recorded information about it (CCC again)
• Foundry Rd - someone else's money again
• Bandstand - another CCC endeavour that's dragged on, is blocking Asset Transfer with previous funds withdrawn
• Coaltown Coffee - promoted in the Senedd, not paying business rates in Foundry Rd (Datasets Empty Property Rates 020119.xls A62:G62)
• Dyffryn Rd - another County project, located over-the-border in Saron Ward (well-run Llandybie Community Councillors campaigning since before 2011)
• Lloyds Bank - the murky commercial County grant, with domestic units

Pictured (on the pamphlet) we have the great and the good of "County Councillor" (ATC replacement Mayor) Deian Harries and "Member of Parliament" Jonathan Edwards - remembering to give the County Councillor his full title, as bickered over in the more recent Minutes to be liberated from the recesses of the Town Hall.

Whilst claiming credit for things well outside their remit, let's give due
credit to the post-"Iscennen Plaid Slide" period.

Ammanford Town Council have recently been fined a further £250 by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales. This is the second fine imposed in a year, along with the declaration of maladministration, for the same complaint! The Ombudsman's report is highly critical, even in its final watered-down form. You can read it in full here - it should be displayed in the Notice Board along with the candidate notices (now they've changed the lock, after ex-office holders left with the keys & Mayoral chains).

To be clear about the fines, the Town's council-tax paying electorate carries the cost, not the fifteen elected councillors (or co-opted cronies, as applicable). Any Councillor with a clue would not have accepted the way things have been run. Those with a shred of integrity should have resigned.

The two-year battle to liberate legally required Minutes has resulted in  two Decision Notices finally being issued in recent weeks. FS50711667[1] & FS50755792 uphold ten complaints, documenting mayhem. The Information Commissioner noted taking the exceptional step of issuing an Information Notice (see FS50711667 S.28), compelling the Council to  respond last summer - which they continued to ignore.

Being stonewalled on the Minutes by ATC, curiosity led to revealing the
financial irregularities, missing VAT returns, lack of proper financial
controls, un-audited/not-published accounts and unearthed the Wales Audit
Office investigations.

£4,350 is the potential fine for a public body failing to register as a Data Controller (as any small business owner will attest). The ICO confirmed that it began enforcement action in July 2018 against Ammanford Town Council. Does the Council now hold sufficient reserves? Or will the precept that's just been doubled be doubled or trebled again?

Ammanford Town Council isn't even sure which set of Standing Orders is in
force, some Councillors think 2012, others 2013. The 2013 version just disclosed (again under the compulsion of the Freedom of Information Act) are England-specific, failing to take account of devolution nor the toothless legislation passed by the Notional Assembly in 2013 (in force since 2015). Empirical evidence, two fines by the PSOW, drives a coach and horses through Part 1: section 42 and the head-buried-in-the-sand maladministration orchestrated from the Mayor's Parlour. ATC even pay for membership of One Voice Wales; but take their Orders from the English National Association of Local Councils (Duh! There are clues in the names)!

In Ammanford 'Plaid Cymru | Party of Blame' has lauded holding the trifecta of political control of Town Council, AM and MP; clustered within 300m. What chance is there of reasonable scrutiny, or even dissent, with a Party whip? The mind boggles further when we give AM Adam Price full credit as new Leader of Plaid and remember that Plaid control the basket-case of Local Government that is Carmarthenshire County Council. Has poor Ammanford found the five magics?

Give me Town Councilry
Give me County Councilry
Give me Notional Assembly

Westmonstery, Party Leadery

Magic, if you please







However, let's give the 'English Labour Party in Wales' Amman Valley branch office fair recognition for running in cosy cahoots. The appalling malpractice of not preparing, ratifying nor publishing Minutes (in a timely manner) began under County Councillor Colin Evans (Lab) stint as Mayor. Fifteen elected councillors (or co-opted cronies, as applicable) facilitated this, overseeing a part-time Clerk who's hours amounted to little more than what many youngsters put in on a weekend shift. Joio.

I'm not eligible to vote in the Myddynfych ward by-election (nor sadly the Wernddu ward), despite my livelihood depending on the Town's provisions. If I could ask a few questions to candidates then these would lead the conversation:

1. How many Ammanford Town Council meetings have you attended in the last 3, 12 & 24 months?
2. Do you believe in transparent and accountable (community) governance?
3. Have you read the Standing Orders?
4. Have you heard of the 1972 Local Government Act, Local Government (Democracy)(Wales) Act 2013 or the Welsh Government's 2015 Statutory Guidance?
5. Do you think that party politics has any place in serving at a town and community council?

County Councillor Colin Evans objected to this democratic election (24 Jan 2019), on the grounds of cost. Ammanford Town Council's "political elite" (that has to be an oxymoron) wanting to divvy up the two wards one each for 'Plaid Cymru | Party of Blame' and the 'English Labour Party in Wales', to retain the balance through co-opting. 

Ammanford deserves better. If eligible to vote on Thursday then please vote to make sure it gets better.


[1] The Information Commissioner stated the wrong year in numerous places in the DN, and is legally unable to the correct her mistakes unless an Appeal is lodged and won through the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). They also classified the complaints as "Not Upheld" in the "Action we've taken" section of their website. Seeding the idea of a "How useless is..." future mini-series.

[Picture brought to you courtesy of Plaid Cymru, Edward J. Repka, Combat Records/Capitol Records, Section 30A and Schedule 2 (2A) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the GIMP & Vic. Sources here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Megadeth-RustInPeace.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plaid_Cymru_logo.svg]

Qua..!

Mayor's Announcements 

The Mayor informed members of  an event he had attended in Llandovery last month which was quite good; it featured a 50 duck race (plastic ducks) on the river - 99% got trapped and did not finish the course.

Ammanford Town Council: Half inept. Half hiding something. Half not good at integer maths!

As the hotly contested Ammanford Town Council by-election for the Iscennen Ward closes, the hollow political promises are binned, and finally the votes are counted, this little numerical gem is worth savouring. It is from one of the few incomplete Minutes released (under compulsion of the Freedom Of Information Act) by the Council. One has to wonder how free and fair today's election has been. How could the Iscennen electorate know what has gone on when the Council has obstinately and repeatedly failed to publish Minutes of meetings and accounts of expenditure. If this election was held in a far-flung developing nation then the enlightened western media would be decrying it from the tree-tops and their satellite phones.

FAOD, these words were copied verbatim, and can be read in between Min.522/16 Oct Police Matters and Min. Oct. / 523/16 To confirm as being a correct record the minutes..... The account also relates to the former mayor, not the current incumbent.

Sadly, Ammanford Town Council also seem to have forgotten to renew their domain registration, and their sparsely populated and stale website has been replaced with adverts to sell or renew the domain since Tuesday. In the short-term content can still be scraped from Google's cache.

[Kudos to the The Sneeze for fractional inspiration]

Cultural Learnings for to make Ammanford great again

Colin's Got It Covered(Up) in Mayoral Mankini of Office

Ammanford's year as "Town of Culture 2018" is now well underway. I wondered what was meant when the "initiative" was announced. So far efforts have been mostly focused on celebrating the entertainment side of things. For some light relief I'd like to take a look at local governance, how Ammanford Town Council's culture of ineptitude and secrecy feeds into the pitiful state of local so-called democracy with a blatant disregard for accountability.

Ammanford Town Council was recently fined by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, upholding a complaint of maladministration. The anonymised Decision Letter is linked here. Mr X's complaint was hand delivered to the Town Hall, Iscennen Road on 21 December 2017, as follows:

"I write to make a formal complaint regarding the absence of published Minutes for Ammanford Town Council’s meetings, since August 2016.
 It has long been a requirement (Local Government Act 1972) for the Council to properly record and make Minutes available for inspection.  Since 1 May 2015 section 55 of the Local Government (Democracy) (Wales) Act 2013 has also required community and town councils to provide these in electronic format, along with the proceedings and (in so far as reasonably practical) any documents referenced in the Minutes (you may find guidance and press releases publicising this on the Welsh Government’s website).
 Please acknowledge receipt of this complaint and in the first instance provide a copy of your complaint resolution process (which should also be on your website). The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales has asked that I exhaust the Council’s formal complaints process before they will continue with their investigation into Ammanford Town Council’s performance."

The PSOW originally buffeted the issue when first reported in December 2017, claiming that Mr X hadn't followed Ammanford Town Council's complaint resolution process - a cyclic argument as Ammanford Town Council doesn't publish it's process. Following delivery of the written letter, the matter was put back to the PSOW for proper consideration. The PSOW failed to respond; further prompting led to a formal review and the PSOW ruled (without a right of appeal) that the complainant had to give 13 weeks for Ammanford Town Council to respond - the clock ticking from the letter through the door, rather than the matter first being raised with the Council (electronically) on 18 October 2017. A plucky case officer also took the initiative to call the Town Clerk, provide an electronic copy of the letter and inform Mr X of this positive action. Payment, details of the complaints process, and some highlights of the new Town Clerk's first year in post were provided, in a brown envelope, on 27 April 2018.

The PSOW action compounds that of the Information Commissioner's Office, who have ruled that Ammanford Town Council was/is in wilful breach of the Freedom Of Information Act (2000). The ICO has repeatedly spoken with the Town Clerk and directed the Council to release copies of the Minutes. Four ICO Decision Notices are pending release from the work-waiting queue. Enforcement action is imminent - once the file is allocated back to a case officer (96 days and counting, since confirmation on 8 February 2018). Some Minutes were published, but they are incomplete and "prove" the existence of other Minutes which have been missed in the relevant quarterly period. The full discourse is available publicly on the WhatDoTheyKnow platform at the following URLs:

   Request submitted 18/10/2017
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/aug_dec_2016_minutes_for_town_co
   Request submitted 01/11/2017
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/jan_mar_2017_minutes_for_town_co
   Request submitted 16/11/2017
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/apr_jun_2017_minutes_for_town_co
   Request submitted 30/11/2017 (and botched delivery in notes)
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/jul_oct_minutes_for_town_council

Seven months on, and Ammanford Town Council still has not complied with its FOI obligations, citing a revamp of their website and upcoming GDPR changes as just two of the things on the jobs list. The Council may wish to take heed of the ICO's view that "Businesses must understand they can't break one law to get ready for another", in the £13,000 fine issued to Honda - commentary and links to the Ruling here at The Register. 

For the Reader wondering what interest our glorious and illustrious Welsh Government has in the matter (might they want to uphold the Law we paid them to write?), don't get too excited. After a bit of war-dialling last week, an officer tasked with Town and Community Councils lamented that they have "such limited powers of enforcement". Her best suggestion was to try and publicise the matter. Another option floated was to speak to a Scrutiny officer at Carmarthenshire County Council - that was drowned by laughter in milliseconds. 

Here is the Welsh Government's Statutory Guidance "Access to Information on Community And Town Councils".

And how about these (2015) words of inspiration from then Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews?

“Some of the best Community and Town Councils are already meeting high standards of openness and transparency, and from now we will require all councils to meet the same standards.” 

The legislation itself is quite readable and unambiguous. A pity the legislation doesn't seem to have any teeth.

A Council must operate on the basis of collective responsibility and has to be accountable. Duties have to be discharged irrespective of personal circumstances. Ammanford Town Council has met and discussed important issues, such as asset transfer and Planning proposals - but who knows the outcomes or the interests involved? It has statutory duties and stewards considerable sums of public money. Minutes have been distributed electronically to Councillors, by both the interim Town Clerk and the current Town Clerk. Serving Councillors have considerable experience in public life, including the current Town Mayor who was a former leader of Dinefwr Borough Council, and was a member of the infamous indemnifying Labour/Independent Executive Board at Carmarthenshire County Council. Not so long ago he had the cheek to claim that pan-Wales local government reorganisation would reduce representation and accountability. According to the recently liberated complaints procedure, the buck stops with the Town Mayor, but the incumbent has been silent (until now?). The complaints protocol is linked here.

This sorry adventure down the rabbit hole begs the question: how inept is Ammanford Town Council? Or worse still, what are they hiding? And most worryingly, is this culture directly or overtly transferred into representation at Carmarthenshire County Council?

I do hope that the distasteful image of Town and County Councillor Colin "Got It Covered(Up)" Evans in his Mayoral Mankini of Office will be all the publicity needed to nudge things along. The Reader really doesn't want to see more.

[Picture brought to you courtesy of Doug Peters/EMPICS Entertainment, South Wales Guardian, Section 30A and Schedule 2 (2A) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the GIMP & the number 6. Sources here:
https://cdn.images.dailystar.co.uk/dynamic/33/photos/778000/620x/547b3bfade4f1_BORAT.jpg
http://www.southwalesguardian.co.uk/resources/images/7788223/?type=responsive-gallery-fullscreen
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2014/9780111116029
https://www.gimp.org]

the Democratic Deficit in Carmarthen East and Dinefwr (pt1)

I think voting is essential. It is part of our responsibility in a democratic society. Sadly we so often seem to get the government that we deserve. Our voting system really doesn't help.

Yesterday my younger sproggling asked me about the general election, as she'd been doing some research in preparation for Hustings and school's mock election. As we started to discuss some of the issues grabbing attention, I started to reflect on the dearth of involvement that I feel with the process this time around, and my voting quandary tomorrow.

At the last General Election I took some tests, to see if I had my own "implicit bias" playing a factor in how I would usually vote. It was interesting to see how my perceived values scored against party policies. For almost all of my life (going back to post-Falklands hustings in Junior school!) I've felt my vote has been, numerically, irrelevant. Under first-past-the-post it is pretty much a two party state in much of the UK. Locally we might not even get the two. I once tactically lent my vote to Plaid Cymru to ensure we didn't sponsor yet another Labour donkey in Westminster, a Conservative was at least a remote possibility.

I've written to my current MP, Jonathan Edwards, twice. In 2015 I invited him to attend the debate on Epilepsy in Parliament. Epilepsy directly affects around 600,000 people in UK, without considering their carers and wider family. I appreciate that the invite was quite short notice and he had prior electioneering duties in the constituency, but Mr Edwards also said in his reply that Healthcare is a devolved issue in Wales. So it came as quite a surprise to find "local needs...health services" feature on the front page of his militiaristic Tarian Cymru/Defending Wales pamphlet. In the centre he talks of "expanding health services" and in the closing passage has a hook of "a vote for...our NHS".

As the current post-holder, Mr Edwards has the advantage that the electorate can base their choice on his prior performance. This contradiction jars with me, as he's currently electioneering on issues that he previously said were devolved. Have we paid him to undertake work he wasn't obliged to? Or, if we take the broader view that Parliamentarians serve their constituents and the whole of the UK, have we paid him not to do the work which he should have done? This nuance of the West Lothian question needs to be resolved swiftly in the coming years. Developing effective drugs to treat and control epilepsy is too big a job to fragment into walled gardens and isolated silos.

[A bonus point to the reader for spotting that we've also paid yet another tier in Tiger Bay at the same time - I'll save that for my very own league table in pt2].

Mr Edwards's remark in the flyer that "Scotland is looking after its own interests" seems somewhat harsh too. I will give him credit for declaring ahead-of-time that "the Conservatives will form the next Government". That's pretty a bold prediction, unless he's trying to kill voter turnout. Plaid Cymru were also pretty efficient getting their leaflet delivered a week ahead of the other parties. I was also pleased to be acknowledged as lead voter as his personalised mailshot landed many days ahead of the same to other voters in our household. "Mysognists of the world unite" might not be the most PC campaign slogan, have I stumbled on implicit bias in Wind Street? 

I wasn't impressed with the Conservative glossy when it finally arrived along with the Labour, UKIP & Liberal Democrat ones. To be fair, I probably wouldn't have been impressed even if it had come with a free iced doughnut from my favourite doughnuttery. But seriously, who chops "logs"? I've always chopped wood! And that axe, it was medieval! Anyone who's banged through more than twenty or thirty tonnes in their formative years will have a decent splitting axe with pre-sprung wedges to hand. Would I really vote for such a dinosaur who can't even use 20th century technology? He'll be looking for people who "understand the necessary hashtags" to hold his hand next.

UKIP's grip on geography continued to amuse. Historically they've struggled to orientate which side Hamilton Hall in Hullavington (Wiltshire) is of the Severn. They gave a Llanelli postcode for Llandybie in the one piece of literature they could muster for the household. Schoolboy errors in the legal imprint were icing on the proverbial missing doughnut in this case.

Labour's Darkin was damaged through guilt-by-association even before his flyer arrived. Its not just Labour's track record of orchestrating the financial crisis on the world stage - the recent sale of Lloyds bank was a timely reminder of just how badly Brown/Blair steered the ship, raiding our gold reserves too and getting so little for them. I was in China as news of the Lehman Brothers collapse broke, and the ripple effect has been profound. At a county level we have paid through the nose with the Labour initiated PFI programme for the unaffordable police station in Ammanford, and saw a spineless Labour led coalition in County Hall go on to unlawfully indemnify legal action in an attempt to silence a critic (who's performed a vital public service of trying to bring some transparency to dubious workings in Carmarthenshire County Council).  However, it was the shared service address that really leapt out. Anthony Jones was the Chair of the planning committee who told me that in order to remain impartial he was unable to represent the views of his electorate, who were overwhelmingly against an inappropriately located development. 

I was pleased to see a familiar face in Lesley Prosser's flyer, having enjoyed a very nice Sunday lunch with her (and her late husband) some twenty years ago. I understand she's come from a standing start, and was even more impressed when I looked up the recent local election figures and saw she'd come an admirable second, ahead of the well financed Plaid candidate and their well oiled party machinery. I do hope liberal principles at HQ give more support to freshers in future years - Facebook as primary campaign platform doesn't gel with my impression of open, transparent and accountable liberal values. Given the weak and wobbly opportunism of Mrs May's snap election, I'll cut them some slack this time around. I fear the duopoly bias in the voting system will compound the democratic deficit and hit Lesley particularly hard.

I'd hoped to hear from all the candidates on an even platform at the Hustings in Ammanford. Whilst I sympathised with those mourning Rhodri Morgan's sudden death, "postponing" an event geared to involve people and draw them into the political process seemed more disrepectful to a man who was known for engaging people in politics. Y Cneifiwr's Llandeilo Hustings report gave a glimpse of a free exchange of thoughts. Ammanford's event might have been equally as revealing - I wasn't the only one to arrive in the car park that evening who'd prepared some questions to size up the candidates.

As I  muse over my postal voting slip, with barely 20 hours left to deliver it safely to a ballot box, I've narrowed down the field but I still feel short changed.