Tuesday 18 June 2013

Getting involved


It's good to see new Members getting involved with council matters, Cllr Darren Price (Plaid) springs to mind, not only challenging the email 'snooping' at last week's meeting but standing up to the gentlemen on the podium on several other occasions too. Last October there was a memorable attempt to hold the leader and senior officers to account over the misuse of the council website..the Sainsbury's saga if you remember. He also put forward the proposal to allow the public to film meetings, which was naturally rejected by the ruling junta.

Some members, elected in May 2012 have taken a slightly more, shall we say, traditional approach to council matters. Residents of the village of Llangadog may not have heard very much from their new member, Cllr Andrew James (Ind), although hopefully they weren't disappointed last week to witness his first utterance, making a declaration of interest because he'd submitted his land for development in the upcoming Local Development Plan.
That's not to say Cllr James has not been busy. Far from it, back in April he had a new toilet block and solar panels approved by the planning committee for his recently established caravan site in the village. His membership of the council was, however, duly noted.

Barely two months later (last week, in fact), at one of Meryl Gravell's (Ind) exclusive Executive Board Member meetings for 'Regeneration' (public and press excluded), lo and behold, two Rural Development grants totalling £27,536.80 were approved, for that very same toilet block (with the addition of the now compulsory hot-tub) and those solar panels.

Was there any mention of the fact that the Councillor was the grant applicant? No. Was that within the rules? Who knows, but by the time this post has been read and digested, I daresay it will be.

Let's hope the electorate of Llangadog appreciate the efforts of their local Member.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Meryl Gravell and Kevin Madge need to take a leaf out of this Leaders book! Instead of awarding Rural Development grants to fat cats, they could reduce the number of NEET young people by recruiting apprentices, giving them a van and landscaping equipment. Grass cutting sorted!!!!!!!!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/oldham-council-innovation-giving-hope-1508247