Kevin Madge replies to Cllr Caiach's call for his resignation

Leader of the Council, Kevin Madge, has responded to Cllr Caiach's call for his immediate resignation over the land deal between the Council and Scarlets Regional Ltd.

As you will see below, Cllr Madge has removed himself from all blame over the fiasco. Cllr Madge is fond of telling us that there are 'tough decisions' to be made and we need to 'wake up and smell the coffee'. In this case it doesn't smell anything like coffee, as I'm sure he is aware.
Yet again, this whole affair smacks of the deliberate prevention of proper scrutiny.

Was Mr Madge aware that two senior officers were trying hard to get the best result for the public purse? Was he complicit in allowing the chief executive, as it appears from the email disclosure, to 'instruct' that the Scarlets had a hefty amount of the proceeds made available to them to pay off a loan?

As far as we can tell, the 'process agreed by the Executive Board' which he refers to below, was to delegate the responsibility for finalising the details to the head of corporate property, who then did his level best, along with the Director of Resources, to act on behalf of the public before the rug was pulled from under their feet.

As Leader of the Council, surely Cllr Madge knew what had happened?

Executive Board Member Cllr Edmunds, as the consultee in the 'process' certainly did, and, seemingly, it preyed on his conscience enough for him to reveal the shocking details to Cllr Caiach.

The email disclosure the other week was confirmation as to who had given the final 'instructions' to benefit the club over the taxpayer...and it didn't seem to be the head of corporate property, or an elected member.

As the controversies are now with the Wales Audit Office and the European Commission, Cllr Madge has decided to make the subject 'sub judice' and hope it will all go away.

Unfortunately as he continues to put forward 'hard choices' and the cuts begin to bite, the electorate will remember his role in this, and the unlawful payments scandals, and see him as either a weak and ineffectual puppet, or complicit in condoning these scandals.  .

Here's Cllr Madge's reply;

Dear Cllr. Caiach,

Since you have now released your rather one-sided view of events I see no purpose in engaging in further detailed exchanges with you on this matter.

I would reiterate that the process agreed by the Executive Board was followed. The matter was dealt with under delegated powers as approved and an independent valuer was engaged. I personally had no further involvement in the details of the transaction as the decision of Executive Board did not require me to be involved, and I am at a loss to understand why you persist in suggesting otherwise.

I believe the Wales Audit Office and the European Commission are looking at various aspects of the transaction, partly as a result of your allegations, and I would have thought it best to await the outcome of those deliberations rather than continuing to issue
further proclamations in the meantime.

Kevin Madge.

Cllr Caiach has responded to the above statement with this;

Dear Kevin,

Although I have contacted the EU commission I have not yet submitted the details of the car park lease sale as part of the case. Neither have I had any complaint lodged with the WAO on this matter as yet.

If my views are one sided, this is surely the time to put your case on the subject to the people of Carmarthenshire?

Cllr Caiach

For information, and as reported in the Western Mail, I have reported the matter to the Wales Audit Office.

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On a separate note, Cneifiwr reports that Cllr Emlyn Dole will be the new leader of the Plaid group on the council replacing Peter Hughes Griffiths who is now vice chair of the council. Cllr Dai Jenkins will be Cllr Dole's deputy. Both councillors have been consistently vocal, when necessary, in their opposition to the ruling administration.