Skewed Priorities

It has been noted of course that Carmarthenshire's Executive Board is back up to ten Members again, it went down to nine a couple of years ago due to the death of a councillor. At the time, Meryl Gravell, former Leader, now Executive Board Member announced it would be kept to nine as a 'cost cutting measure'. Clearly, unknown to the rest of us, there must now be room in the budget for this expense; with the the post attracting a salary of £28,000 plus benefits, it's a tempting offer and not to be sniffed at especially when one is brokering a deal to form a ruling coalition. The Carmarthen Journal has used, as an example, the proposed cull of school lollipop patrols to the tune of £20,000 over the next two years as a cost comparison exercise.