Democracy fears over changes to constitution
OPPOSITION councillors on Bridgend County Borough Council have voiced fears that democracy is being eroded with amendments to the local authority’s constitution.
Conservative councillor Matthew Voisey, who asked for a review of the constitution, said he wanted to see certain changes made to increase democracy and open government on the Labourrun council.
But rather than improving things, he said, democracy was being “closed down” following the findings made by a cross-party group tasked with considering various measures.
Cllr Voisey had asked for a shorter time period for questions and motions to be reinstated, the power to question cabinet members following their announcements at full council, the right for the three largest opposition groups to make announcements and for the timing of council meetings to be reconsidered.
But none of his suggestions were taken forward following the review, with the group instead putting forward its own recommendations.
At a full council meeting, some opposition councillors criticised the findings of the group, but they all ended up agreeing the measures with one amendment.
As a result:
Council meetings will continue to take place during the day as opposed to in the evening. A vote in the summer saw 17 out of 45 councillors vote in favour of holding evening meetings. This will now not be reviewed again until the next administration;
The time period for the submission of questions and motions will remain at 10 working days;
Opposition group leaders will not be allowed to make announcements due to the risk they could become political statements; and,
Councillors will not be able to question cabinet members or the chief executive on their announcements made at full council.
The working group then made a series of further recommendations:
The council leader’s report, which is read out at full council, will now be called an announcement instead, while the current announcements made by cabinet members will be shortened;
The period of notice for a call-in after publication of a decision will be extended from three working days to five working days; and,
Any councillor who calls in a decision will be excluded from the decision-making at that committee but will be invited to give evidence to the committee in support of the call-in request.
Cllr Voisey said there were times that councillors should be able to question cabinet members in the public domain, adding that by changing the title of the council leader’s report into an announcement it would take away the ability of councillors to question him.
He said: “We have cabinet members who make announcements, sometimes they’re political – this is a political chamber.
“I don’t see why opposition members can’t make statements, if they’re political that’s the whole point of democracy.”
He said evening meetings would encourage more people to become councillors and that two years down the line what was supposed to be a temporary measure due to a lack of resources was now being made permanent in terms of the submission of questions and motions remaining at 10 working days rather than five.
He said as a result of the review, councillors were now less able to stand up and raise their questions.
Councillor Ken Watts (Independent) said: “We are feeling frustrated that we are not able to voice our opinion in this chamber when, and as often, as we would like.”
Council leader Huw David said the role of councillors at full council was to make decisions, with opportunities for councillors sitting on scrutiny committees to ask questions.
In the end councillors agreed the proposals, with an amendment put forward by Conservative councillor Tom Giffard that will ensure any scrutiny committee which scrutinises a call-in decision will be politicallybalanced.
DOLPHINS have been spotted in the sea off Porthcawl.
Pictures taken by Gordon Young capture the moment the animals were seen recently.
Although dolphins are not a rare sight off the Welsh coast, they are more usually seen in Cardigan Bay and are seen less often off the south coast.
In 2017, a boat operator in Porthcawl who spotted dolphins said it was the first time in 20 years of owning the boat that she’d seen anything like it.
Gordon, 43, originally from Caerphilly, was in Wales earlier this week after travelling from Brighton, where he now lives.
“It was in the Porthcawl area,” he said.
“I have surfed this area for years and I have never heard of seeing a dolphin or a porpoise. I’ve seen a seal but nothing like this before. It was lovely. They are beautiful mammals.”
Gordon explained it was hard to say how many there were, but he thinks he spotted at least three of them.
“They were spotted over a couple of days,” he added.
“They were basically just doing their thing. When we got there quite a few people said they had spotted them like us – it was wonderful. You could say it was a nice surprise.”