Smart Parking's nationwide pitstop

Formula 1 is finally getting the season underway at the Austrian Grand Prix today and I'm giddy with excitement. Notso- Smart Parking  might be very envious of the speed with which the F1 teams are able to make tyre changes in the pits after this instruction from the Advertising Standards Authority to fix all their breaches of the 2015 Ofcom regulations on non-geographic numbers:

"We have contacted Smart Parking to instruct them to amend the Parking Terms and Conditions on their website and the car park signs to make it sufficiently clear wherever the telephone number is stated, that a service charge of 10p applies, and there is also an access charge that applies. Further to this, we have said to them that, whilst personal correspondence is not within our remit, we would suggest they also include this information in letters. We will get their assurance for these changes."

This means every sign, in every car park, across the whole of the UK has to be updated, again. Could this be the most expensive spurious charge Smart Parking have tried to scam? We may find out in the coming months.

To provide a little of the back-story, I received my first UK parking ticket last summer, on land adjacent to Shopper's World in Ammanford. I did not take it well. I'd been recorded by ANPR visiting the site in good faith for 14 minutes. I found a shopping list of issues at the site and tried to resolve the matter amicably. After that Smart Parking rejected my appeal, which set the wheels in motion to look more closely into their dodgy operations. POPLA upheld my appeal shortly after (costing Smart Parking in the process). A world championship is built from more than one chequered flag.

Scores of residents and visitors to Ammanford have been similarly cheated by notso Smart Parking. This company has gouged a chunk of cash out of the local Welsh economy, siphoned out to their operations centre in Birmingham, England, HQ in Perth, Scotland and divvied out millions in dividends. They have demeaned and terrorised a number of my older friends. Pensioners have paid hundreds of pounds in spurious charges, out of fear or an inability to navigate the unfair appeals procedures. Carmarthenshire County Councillors have been uninterested in victims' plights.

One widower (let's call him Mr K) wrote back to Smart Parking taking up their offer to have the matter listed in court, to which they've pursued him with "debt-collectors", onerous legal threats and payment plans. Mr K's experience of debt-counselling (and helping others do the right thing in court) has meant he's challenged the so-called debt, which should have put a hold the harassment. And yet Smart Parking continued to pursue him. If a heart bypass hasn't stopped Mr K helping the lonely & isolated every week, nor from serving the needy with compassion at FoodBank throughout the corona-virus pandemic (he should be shielding!), then I won't be deflected from my path of seeing justice prevail.

To be clear, I have no issue with paying for parking, but charges have to be fair and the operation lawful. Smart Parking's greed has led me to uncover that they have not been operating fairly or lawfully.

I've regularly been described as persistent, professionally at performance appraisals, and in my personal life. I've always welcomed the term as a compliment. It may have taken the ASA 10 months to reach this point, but I'm ready for a long season.

Throw back Tuesday - 6.3 revealed

With a distinct sense of déjà vu and "how could they not have a copy of that?", the next element presented to the full Ammanford Town Council Meeting of 9 December 2019 had again been delivered on 16 August 2019.

For a little context, the first fine/redress referenced was to resolve the 2017 complaint without the kerfuffle of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales performing a full investigation. The early resolution appeared to have been buried for the benefit of the "Iscennen Plaid slide" in 2018. The enclosed cheque was finally cashed by the Council on 2 December 2019 - delay due to not being able to visit a branch as the Council's accounts were still held at a bank that had closed their Ammanford branch years before. 

The PSOW received a letter from the new Clerk on 17 December 2019, which added greater confusion to matters, keeping the Complainant in the dark, causing the PSOW to re-open the case and instructing the Clerk to provide both a copy of the response and a cheque. Fair play, within an hour and eight minutes a counter-signed cheque was sent via Recorded Delivery, from Ammanford Post Office on 20 December 2019 (11:04 am) which was collected from the Sorting Office on Christmas Eve. The new Clerk also provided a copy of the 17th December letter through the Complainant's door on the 20th - presumably on the walk back from the Post Office.

No evidence has ever been produced to confirm if a cheque was written for the Member of the Public in October, but there have been conflicting reports about one being found in a Councillor's pocket later.

The new Clerk also raised the Complainants heckles by making a false claim the he could "find what is required on the Ammanford Town Council website". This was noted by the PSOW and fuelled the complaint in regards to item 6.2.

For the avoidance of doubt, and to crush some Facebook "sour grapes" lies put around by former Town Councillors, both the £125 early resolution redress and the £250 final report redress cost Philip Hammond (through the magic of Gift Aid) within hours of receipt. In the case of the £250 cheque, the Interim Clerk had witnessed the Complainant cashing the cheque on Quay Street two days after receipt. Knowing more of the chequered financial history of the Council (never wondered why "Banking update" has been a multi-year recurring Agenda item?) the Complainant now realises what a reckless move that was!

Lessons to learn:

• The Council didn't formally acknowledge receipt - complaints policy says five days (despite two phone call chasing). It certainly didn't resolve the issue within 20 working days - like the policy says "most" complaints will. This complaints policy was put in place as a direct remedy directed per the PSOW's original report.
• Taking almost four months to bring an item before Council is worrisome.
• Councillors should have reviewed the correspondence and asked questions.
• Dating items presented, as a policy, would have covered all these issues, and "protected" against an FOI request.
• Getting chopsy when apologising (again) reinvigorates Complainants, in this case staining yet another clean sheet.

The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales received this complaint on 8 November 2019 (one has to "exhaust" a published complaints procedure, or wait thirteen weeks before the PSOW will consider matters). This matter was formally resolved on 14 January 2020.

Throw back Monday - 6.2 revealed

Following on from yesterday's "how could they not have a copy of that?", the next element presented to the full Council Meeting of 9 December 2019 was dated 16 August 2019.

To provide a little context, the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales produced a draft report in March 2019 which the Council agreed to be bound by - in a watered down form. It had taken more than 18 months to reach that point. The Council had employed an Interim Clerk for 15 hours a week, who appeared to be working her socks off to try and dig them out of a hole. Looking from the outside-in she appeared to have hit resistance; cheeky politics was being played and the Council seemed unwilling to step from the 19th century towards the 21st.

So here's 6.2:

Lessons to learn:

• The Council didn't formally acknowledge receipt - complaints policy says five days (despite two phone call chasing). It certainly didn't resolve the issue within 20 working days - like the policy says "most" complaints will. This complaints policy was put in place as a direct remedy directed per the PSOW's original report.
• Taking almost four months to bring an item before Council is worrisome.
• Councillors should have reviewed the correspondence and asked questions.
• Dating items presented, as a policy, would have covered all these issues, and "protected" against an FOI request.
• Publishing the documents referenced in an Agenda, per Welsh Law would have stopped this ever becoming an issue, currently corona-parked with the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales received this complaint on 8 November 2019 (one has to "exhaust" a published complaints procedure, or wait thirteen weeks before the PSOW will consider matters). 

The issues escalated further when the new full time Clerk committed to various actions and failed to implement, the PSOW deciding it was appropriate to investigate the Council, again.

Watch out for 6.3 tomorrow.

Throw back Sunday - 6.1 revealed

One of the astonishing revelations from Ammanford Town Council's Clerk (~£32K pa) was that he couldn't find correspondence presented to full Council on 9 December 2019,when he attended his first meeting to take up the reins on a full time basis {see Liar, Liar, Townhall on fire (pt4)} .

By virtue of  Section 57 of Local Government (Democracy) (Wales) Act 2013 these documents should have been made available electronically to the public when Councillors were summoned to the Meeting .

So, to be helpful, I thought I'd serialise things - having suitably redacted as the Council should have done to comply with the DPA2018 (GDPR) .

Let's start with item 6.1, of 28 August 2019: 

Lessons to learn:

• The Council has never formally acknowledged receipt - complaints policy says five days (despite a phone call chasing). It certainly didn't resolve the issue within 20 working days - like the policy says "most" complaints will.
• Taking over three months to bring an item before Council is worrisome.
• Councillors should have reviewed the correspondence and asked questions.
• Dating items presented, as a policy, would have covered all these issues, and "protected" against an FOI request.
• Publishing the documents referenced in an Agenda, per Welsh Law would have stopped this ever becoming an issue, currently corona-parked with the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

Watch out for 6.2 tomorrow.

Liar, Liar, Townhall on fire (pt4)

Watching Dominic Cummings squirm in his own lies, bolstered by Bozo Johnson, reminded me that there's always evidence. It also jogged my brain that I've a number of mostly-complete-but-need-editing pieces from my own time strictly observing Lockdown, that I should schedule to publish.

So, as an update to Liar, Liar, Townhall on fire (pt3), let me remind my one dear reader of where we were in the tumultuous turn of events of the first and second weeks of March [what feels like half a lifetime ago]. Jonathan Edwards (Plaid Cymru) had paid a gravely worrying visit to my office, which forced forward my business's orderly contingency plan into a scrabble to "get out of Dodge". Amidst that:

1. On 9 March 2020 Ammanford Town Clerk (Duncan S Morgan) told the whole of the Council (including Members of the Public present - myself included) that all the "not so nice letters" from the ICO had been dealt with in February. 
2. On 13 March 2020 the Lead Case Officer at the ICO confirmed that she'd spoken with the Clerk on 9 March 2020 as they'd received information from the Council. She firmly explained that the information must be provided to the Requester and should have been provided via WhatDoTheyKnow - as it was an electronic request and Public Bodies must adhere to the "form & format" guidance.
3. On 14 March 2020 I blogged about doubling down on the lies (pt3) and scheduled to publish on the 15 March 2020, outraged by the lies.

Monday 16th March 2020 was a bit of blur, trying to balance/close off the books for the year, accelerating the miserable task of stripping out the office, triple-checking every process could be carried out by at least four of us (in case one of us were incapacitated or didn't survive the sweeping pandemic) not to mention follow-up with new business opportunities from our (expensive) investment at a recent shadow-of-itself world-leading international tradeshow. So busy that I didn't hear the letter flap spring shut sometime that afternoon; I'd checked the mail at lunchtime (due to Royal Mail cutbacks/changes our delivery is invariably in the afternoon). But lo and behold I had a letter! Here's the envelope:

Note the franked stamp from the Sorting Office says "13/03/2020 20:04:35", confirming it wasn't posted until Friday - and clearly not in February.

Let's move on and take a poke at the letter:

Firstly we observe that it is dated "9th March 2020"

• but that wasn't in February!
• conflicts with the report given the same-day at Council some hours before/after
• conflicts with the Draft Minutes (6.3 ICO letter of 18 Feb 2020)

Next, note that the reference says "Public Services Ombudsman for Wales Complaint" when this complaint was lodged with the Information Commissioner's Office - who'd already issued a Decision Notice against the Council, demanding a rapid resolution.

Might 'Compliant [sic] Reference FS50954938' be correct? Nope, it was/is FS50904938.

And then we turn to the guts of the letter, with good news and bad. Firstly the good news, the Council was able to find the dates of correspondence for Agenda points 6.5-6.8. Hurrah! In a well functioning Council it would seem that they'd be on-top of correspondence requiring a response that was sent in the two weeks immediately before summonsing Councillors to attend.

The bad news is quite sad. 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 & 6.4 were all missing, and the extensive search appears to have consumed a very non-PC "three man day hours per person" between the Clerk and Mayor. So was that six person days? Six person hours? Three man days and three woman hours or even some combination thereof? What's even more perplexing is: how was the new Clerk able to prepare the Agenda for 9 December 2019 without sight of the very same letters he (assisted by a she) has been unable to find since 19 December 2019?

Had the Council published the (redacted) letters, as required by Welsh law with the Agenda, then there'd have been no hunting; and no FOI request to begin with, then no escalation, no ICO resources consumed, and certainly no Decision Notice ordering it to comply within 35 calendar days.

Sadly there's really, really bad news to follow, as if the new Clerk had just asked I'd have been happy to help furnish him with copies of the letter referenced in 6.1, which was written and hand-delivered on 28 August 2019, 6.2 on 16 August 2019 and 6.3 also on 16 August 2019. Agenda point 6.4 was the persistent issue of  the never-worked-properly £17K CCTV system. That stemmed from an FOI request of 11 March 2019 with the correspondence likely directly from the Information Commissioner's Office about 14 October 2019 (all in electronic form, with possible physical chasers).

It is apparent that the Clerk & Mayor of the Council have intentionally tried to keep their response from public view by posting a letter which was not delivered until 16 March 2020, in the hope that their tardiness, and direct disregard of the ICO's instructions, would not face scrutiny.

The quality of the response is shocking. Amateurish, inaccurate, confusing and self-conflicting. I'd be too ashamed to sign my name at the bottom of such a letter.

Circling-back, why did it take nearly four months for the Council to look at correspondence clearly marked as requiring a response? In extremis, the Council's own complaints policy requires it to formally acknowledge issues within five working days, resolving most in twenty working days and promising regular updates if protracted. Fifteen Councillors should have had their finger on the pulse of operations, stepped up to support interim/part-time efforts and latterly ensured their handsomely rewarded wonderboy could spell, count and discern between Regulator and Ombudsman. The reality was most Councillors were too busy playing party politics and ego-jousting.

Here's the Hopeful conclusion to that Ratified complaints policy:

If the Council really wants to learn then the elected and appointed Councillors need to step-up, require the Council's Clerk to put together a coherent Agenda with precision, publish necessary documents and follow-up meetings swiftly by promulgating Draft Minutes. Act transparently and keep short accounts! None of this is rocket science, just basic statutory duties.

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]