The 'new' Executive Board for the Council has been announced by Leader Cllr Kevin Madge. According to a commenter the Indie Group met on Wednesday and the Labour Group meets on Monday to confirm nominations. So far it's a 5/5 split between Labour and the Indies. Nothing for Plaid of course.
Pam Palmer (Ind) and Tegwen Devichand (Lab) will be deputy leaders; Pam will look after Rural Affairs (countryside gossip perhaps?), Community Safety and Business Management whilst Tegwen, a former Chair of the Council, will take care of Housing. As predicted it looks like Meryl Gravell (Ind) will get Regeneration which will keep the Chief Executive happy; Jim Jones will be responsible for the Environment and Jane Tremlett, famed for Dickensian quotes and voting to close care homes will look after our Health and Social Care.
The Labour group have also, I believe, appointed Keith Davies (Education), Jeff Edmunds (Finance) and Colin Evans for Technical Services, it was Cllr Evans who nominated Kevin Madge for Leader at last week's meeting and recounted how the voters of Garnant believe that Cllr Madge can 'walk on water'.
The resumed meeting to be held on the 1st June will confirm the composition of committees and other chairs, it will also determine the level of allowances for councillors for the forthcoming year. It remains to be seen whether the new Executive Members will award themselves the full whack as recommended by the Independent Remuneration Panel Wales or will attempt to court some popularity as their counterparts have in Powys and opt for a bit less.
So, as we drift slowly into the new municipal year with the deckchairs re-arranged, the real business, as well as the strength of the coalition and indeed the strength of the opposition will not become apparent until the next ordinary full council meeting on the 13th June. This will, of course be the anniversary of last June's #daftarrest meeting and I will be there as a very interested, er, observer......
As Cneifiwr's latest post observes, it's business as usual on the Towy.
4 comments:
There are rumours that Pam Palmer is not happy with the 'Rural Affairs' portfolio and a few other indies not entirely happy either, it's not just the issue of the money apparently, it's the perks as well...
Nonsense. Pam herself created the Rural Affairs portfolio for herself to stave off Indie Cllrs' objections that rural Carms would be neglected under an urban Labour administration.
A few Indies had a moan that thier quota of paid jobs had dropped from 14 before the election (half the Independent Group had something) to 7 after the election (a third of thier 21 have something, including Good Old Tom who held on the his Chairmanship of the Licensing Committee and its extra cash).
The Indies are stuggling to cope with not being the dominant partner. Labour are certinally exerting themselves and are by-and-large operating independently from the Independent Group. This is why there are several Councillors who were running the show before May 3rd who are now relegated to 'the supporting cast' walking around County Hall looking like they are sucking lemons. Seems the the extra £28,000 salary for being in the cabinet is still no compensation for those who before May 3rd had more - money and power!!!
The other veteran Independent loyalist to join the Exec Board is Cllr Mair Stephens.
I bet all those people that voted Labour on May 3rd will be delighted to see Meryl Gravell back on the Executive Board.
That IS what you wanted, isn’t it?
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