News

Local authority misleads pupils

Published

8 years ago

April 12, 2016

countyhall

THE HERALD has seen a letter from the Council’s education department regarding its eleventh hour cancellation of a meeting between Kate Evans-Hughes, the local authority’s recently appointed Director of Education, and the School Councils of Tasker-Milward and Sir Thomas Picton School.

Ms Evans-Hughes, whose conduct during the consultation has been the subject of complaints to the local authority, cancelled a meeting with members of the schools’ pupil bodies due to take place on March 15 and Prendergast Archives Centre.

While school students were disappointed at the late cancellation of the meeting and the thwarting of their chance to let their views be known to the person with ultimate responsibility for ignoring them, the content of the communication to the schools telling them of the cancellation has raised yet more questions about the Council’s cavalier approach to its legal responsibilities.

The letter, signed by Huw Jones, Professional Officer, Planning Places & Admissions at County Hall, states that. ‘It is considered that there is little purpose in holding further specific events to ascertain the views of pupils on the Council’s proposals for Haverfordwest, particularly as we already have sufficient evidence of their views from previous proposals’.

However, that letter represents either a deliberate or negligent omission of one salient fact that appears at the head of every page of the Council’s current and ongoing consultation; namely, ‘Please note: this consultation supersedes all previous statutory consultation undertaken in relation to secondary school reorganisation in Haverfordwest. Responses previous consultations will not be reconsidered’.

In other words the Council, is telling students it has no need to consult with them because it has their previous responses which it will not consider.

The apparent complete contempt for the views of students is as nothing, however, with the very clear contempt that the Council has for the Code it is supposed to be following in relation to ascertaining pupils’ views. Those rules provide that Pembrokeshire County Council MUST make suitable arrangements to consult with pupils of any affected school… and, where possible, with children and young people who are likely to attend those schools.

As a minimum, this must include consultation with the school councils of the affected schools, but should also include consultation with individual learners where this is appropriate and practicable. Governing bodies must help facilitate this aspect of the consultation’.

At the very least, the letter from the Council to head teachers about the consultation with pupils is a gross misstatement of the position with the potential to mislead pupils that their responses are no longer required. At the very worst, the letter from the Council to head teachers about the consultation with pupils is a deliberate attempt to mislead both pupils and schools as to the terms of the consultation and pupils’ participation in it.

In either the event the breach of Code is clear and, should the Council elect to proceed with the consultation in spite of the breach, it lays itself open to a legal challenge on the basis of that breach.

The Herald invited a comment from the Director of Education and/or the Head of Legal Services asking for clarification of how the Council is able to reconcile Huw Jones’s email with either the content of the Code or the content of its own consultation document.

A spokesperson told us: ‘In accordance with the School Organisation Code, the Council has made suitable arrangements to consult with pupils, and the School Councils of all affected schools have been invited to respond to the current consultation on the proposal to reorganise secondary education provision in Haverfordwest. There is, however, no requirement to hold consultation meetings.

‘All responses from previous consultations have been declared null and void and will not form part of any evidence presented to Council.

‘The Council is committed to securing the views of all stakeholders and their responses will be included when the Consultation Report is considered by Council. This will clearly show whether young people have engaged in the process’.

We responded and pointed out that the response completely ignored the fact the letter said the Council did not need to meet with pupils as it already knew what their views were from previous consultations, even though it now said it would disregard them in ongoing exercise.

We received no reply.

News

Welsh Lib Dems urge First Minister to return dodgy donation

Published

3 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THIS week in the Senedd, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have urged the First Minister to return the £200,000 donation he received from a company linked to environmental crimes.

Speaking to the Senedd on Wednesday, party leader Jane Dodds MS urged FM Vaughan Gething to return money donated to his campaign by Dauson Environmental, a refuse and recycling business owned by David John Neal.

Mr Neal received a 3-month suspended prison sentence in 2013 for illegally dumping waste at a conservation site on the Gwent levels.

His companies Atlantic Recycling and Neal Soil Suppliers were also prosecuted and given fines and costs of £202,000.

Then in 2017, Mr Neal was given another suspended sentence of 18 weeks, with fines and costs of £230,000 after failing to remove the waste.

The Welsh Lib Dems have called on the FM to return the donation, as part of wider calls for a shift away from the influence of “big money” in Welsh politics.

Commenting, the Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats Jane Dodds MS said:

“This entire episode has casted a dark shadow upon Welsh democracy and has rightfully led to many questioning the integrity of Vaughan Gething’s leadership campaign and the way our democracy works here in Wales.

Unfortunately for many of us this is hardly surprising, as our political system has been broken for quite some time now.

A system that empowers the elite donor class whilst simultaneously shutting out the voice of the voter is a perversion of democracy itself.

This is why our wider goal must be to remove the influence of ‘big money’ from Welsh politics once and for all.

We cannot have another government that prioritises the interests of its financial benefactors over those of the Welsh people.

We need to take a firm stance in rooting out the influence of cash in Welsh politics, for the sake of our communities we must start prioritising their interests and needs instead of having more self-serving politicians.”

News

Council seeking legal advice to address Withyhedge enforcement

Published

3 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

PEMBROKESHIRE County Council says it has sought legal advice and is contemplating legal proceedings against Withyhedge Landfill operators RML, in regards to the ongoing odour issues at the site.

The Council intends to ask the Court for an injunction requiring RML to abate the public nuisance odour arising from the landfill. Failure to comply with the injunction would be contempt of court, which carries a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment and unlimited fine.

Following significant work undertaken by RML the Authority is disappointed that the problem has not been resolved and residents continue to be impacted by the odour.

Working in collaboration with Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and Public Health Wales (PHW), we fully appreciate that the communities affected cannot tolerate this any longer.

NRW announced that the first set of deadlines for the completion of actions to tackle the ongoing odour issues at Withyhedge Landfill have been met, one week on following the issuing of further enforcement action on 18th April.

This will be closely monitored by NRW to ensure the operator complies with all the actions set out in Notice by 14 May.

It was deemed appropriate to wait until the operator had carried out mitigation to comply with the enforcement requirements by NRW prior to considering this additional action.

To that end, on 26th April 2024, the Council served RML with a letter of claim and invited them to give legally binding undertakings to abate the odour nuisance or face legal proceedings. The Council also asked for disclosure of documents relevant to the proceedings, including records of waste brought in or removed from the landfill.

The Council has given RML until 14th May 2024 to respond to its letter of claim. This aligns with the current deadline set by NRW under its enforcement notice.

Pembrokeshire County Council Chief Executive Will Bramble welcomed the move. He said: “We are extremely disappointed that RML has not delivered the necessary action to stop the completely unacceptable smells from the site.

“We fully support the additional enforcement action being taken by NRW and continue to work closely with them to do all in our power to correct the situation.

“Our intention to ask the Court for an injunction requiring RML to stop the odour nuisance arising from the landfill, is another part of our collaborative approach. The smell from Withyhedge is having a major impact on residents and visitors. This situation has gone on too long and it is unacceptable.”

News

Beautiful, funny and lovely: Family pay tribute to Sian Batchelor

Published

6 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Tom Sinclair

THE family of a woman has paid tribute to a “beautiful, funny, lovely person.”

Sian Batchelor, aged 32, was found on a beach near Pennar, Pembroke Dock on Tuesday evening, April 30^th, 2024.

Her family has issued a statement to say: ‘We are devastated by our loss. Sian was a beautiful, funny, loving person. We will treasure the good times we had with her.

“We would now like time to grieve and would ask to be given privacy in which to do so.”

The circumstances surrounding Sian’s death are being investigated and police would like to hear from anyone with information, sightings of Sian or contact from Sian, between Thursday April 25 to Tuesday April 30.

Police can be contacted either online at: https://bit.ly/DPPContactOnline, by emailing [email protected], or by calling 101. If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired text the non-emergency number on 07811 311 908.

Quote reference: DP-20240430-284