County Hall

PEMBROKESHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL’s leader has not been given permission to speak or vote on a notice of motion that he has submitted to Thursday’s full council meeting.

Councillor Jamie Adams’ question relates to Bovine Tuberculosis and he had appealed to the Standards Committee to be able to speak and vote on the matter.

However, Cllr Adams simply submitted a form stating that the reasoning behind his application would be provided at the Standards Committee that met on Monday, March 7.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr David Morgan, said that he was embarrassed and disappointed by the situation and it was agreed that the application from Cllr Adams should not be discussed.

The ruling from the committee meant that two other similarly sparse applications from Cllr Tom Richards and Cllr Owen James were also not dealt with.

The Committee has been in a trial period over a new model for applications for dispensation and it was agreed that there was a grey area in the cross-over between the old and new model.

Mr David Morgan told the committee: “I appreciate that this has been the subject of much debate recently and we are very grateful to Claire for producing the new procedure and setting out what is to happen in the future.

“We are in between the time when people put in an application which served everybody reasonably well for a period of time and then we allowed people to come and present their case before the procedure was formally adopted.

“During that time, the quality of these applications has got increasingly worse and so it has been more or more difficult to try and work out what the applicant is actually wanting even if he does appear in person.

“I think we have now got to the point, particularly in respect of those applications where people say they’ll be turning up on the day, that we should not, I personally would have great difficulty in considering applications of that sort.

“Our job is to try and help the process of approving a dispensation but if we have got absolutely no opportunity to consider these things in advance it would be extremely difficult for us to give a reasonable answer.

“I also feel that the people presenting these applications, saying they will come on the day, are extremely senior councillors who would probably not tolerate that kind of behaviour if we went to their meeting and did the same. I hope that these applications can be re-submitted very quickly.”

The Council’s Monitoring Officer, Mrs Claire Jones added: “There has been a big period of transition for this committee.

“The recommendation in my report did give perhaps the room for manoeuvre for members to believe that there was an alternative that either you filled in the form or came to this committee.

“I absolutely take the point that applications that give no information aren’t helpful, it does not give you the opportunity to prepare but there is a dilemma as to whether or not they needed to fill in the form as well as attending in person.

“It is very clear to members from today that they do need to fill in the application form in great detail otherwise it will be rejected.”

Community Councillor George Allingham said: “It might have become a grey area but for a long time there has been a necessity to fill out the form.

“The information from Cllr Adams is dated February 23 which is 13 days ago so this could have been completed properly in adequate time.”

Mr Morgan also said: “One of the applications we are considering is from one of the members of our committee (Cllr Tom Richards) who is well aware of how we got to this point.

“It puts me in great difficulty and some embarrassment and disappointment that we are faced with this situation.

“I am extremely sorry that there is a council meeting coming up but I still think the principle that we are the Standards Committee and we really ought to set our own standards in that respect and I think proper behaviour and good manners are very much a part of that.”

The committee agreed that the applications should not be considered and Mr Morgan also apologised to the leader for coming to the conclusion they had.