News

Badger smells more than a rat

Published

11 years ago

September 29, 2013

Readers will have read exclusively in this newspaper about the collusion of certain Councillors in a scheme intended to help top boss Bryn Parry-Jones avoid tax.

There are times when even Badger is astonished by the way in which some members of the Council, having found one level, appear to find murkier depths to plumb with ease.

Look at the six faces opposite: The leader of the Council, his predecessor, a former deputy leader of the Council, a former cabinet member, a current cabinet member and the former leader of Pembrokeshire’s Conservatives: there they are.

These are the faces of the Councillors who sat behind closed doors in a meeting that, in a time of brutal cuts to Council services, decided that a man paid more than the Prime Minister needed a big tax break to make ends meet in his retirement.

Well that condensed milk and those tinned pilchards won’t buy themselves, will they?

Let’s look at some of the sorts of figures involved in the calculations of the Staff Remuneration Committee to see if we can get close to the size of Bryn’s Big Break. The Council, as is usual, have decided that such is Bryn’s importance and magnificence that the public should not have the details of the pot of public money he gets for his part in bringing such shame to Pembrokeshire that the Welsh Government had to intervene in the Council’s operations.

Readers may be surprised to learn that not only is Bryn’s salary actually a matter of public record – although Pembrokeshire County Council held out against revealing his hefty salary for many moons– but calculations used in other local authorities are widely available online.

In 2011, Haringey Council produced the following figures for someone on a salary of £150,000 (much less than his Bryn-ness):

Salary at beginning of year	£150,000
Service at beginning of year	25 years
Pre-2008 service at beginning of year	22 years
Increase in Pay	6.6%
Salary at end of year	£160,000
Service at end of year	26 years
Pre-2008 service at end of year	22 years
Inflation over year (Consumer Price Index)	2.5%
Pension accrued at beginning of year	£48,750
Lump Sum accrued at beginning of year	£123,750
Pension accrued at end of year	£54,667
Lump Sum accrued at end of year	£132,000
Value of “pension savings”	£80,323
Excess over annual allowance of £50,000	£30,323
Tax charge if 40%	£12,129
Tax charge if 45% (from April 2013)	£13,645
Tax charge if 50%	£15,161

Local government pensions work on the basis that employers and employees make contributions to the scheme. In order to permit Bryn to avoid tax what the IPPG led Committee did was to make it possible for Bryn Parry-Jones – as well as his fellow highest-paid officers – to choose to salt away the equivalent value of the Council’s contribution to their pensions to somewhere the tax man wouldn’t be able to get his mitts on it.

The change in the tax laws which brought about this tax dodge “arrangement” only affects those described as ‘very high earners.’ In fact the reason the change was brought in, ostensibly, was because of a quarter of all pension tax relief was going to only 1.5% of members of the pension scheme.

Bryn is one of the 1.5%.

These members – and take a good look at the mug shots opposite – thought that in a period when services were being cut and the wages of the lower paid employees were being slashed, they would give the best paid of their best paid employees a chance to avoid paying tax.

They have colluded to give those most able to afford tax to avoid it at the expense of everyone else.

Cosy and complacent: it appears they sat around a table in secret session to carve out a sordid tax dodge.

They should be ashamed. They won’t be.

Five of these sat together and decided to cut low-paid workers’ pay knowing that Bryn is trousering a big tax-free wodge of Council Tax payers’ cash.

It stinks.

The members of this Committee have colluded to let their very well remunerated Chief Executive avoid tax.

The Welsh Audit Office don’t seem to like it. Why should we?

Let’s also put this in context. At the time this meeting took place, the Council had just been the subject of the report that led to Welsh Government intervention in Pembrokeshire’s affairs. That report said this about our County Council (emphases added):

“The absence of effective governance in relation to safeguarding and protecting children REFLECTS FAILURES WITHIN THE CULTURE OF THE AUTHORITY AS A WHOLE. The shortcomings with the authority’s arrangements to safeguard and protect children are longstanding and systemic. This is indicative of the deep-seated nature of these problems and failings within the authority … THIS IS INDICATIVE OF A CLOSED, NOT AN OPEN OR TRANSPARENT CULTURE.”

So it was – as the minutes of the meeting put it – to aid the retention of the person in charge at the time the Council failed most spectacularly in its duty to us that the Committee members opposite decided that so essential was Bryn’s contribution that he needed an annual five-figure sweetie to stay.

Shortly after the child safeguarding issue came to prominence, a vote of no confidence in Bryn was tabled by Councillors who were, to say the least, “disappointed” in his management. He survived the vote as ‘Cwmbetws’ and his cohorts rallied round him.

Smell a rat?

It stinks of other odours, too: those more associated with the dairy farming with which John Davies and Jamie Adams will be familiar.

Badger was thinking of illustrating this point with the quote from Animal Farm about some animals being more equal than others. Instead, he remembered something he read when being taught history by former Director of Education, Graham Longster.

Senator Joseph McCarthy was notorious for helping create the ant-communist hysteria in America during the early 1950’s. His claims became more outrageous and vindictive as time went on. He finally met his come-uppance before a Senate committee in 1954.

Joseph N. Welch, Counsel for the US Army, finally – exasperatedly – asked McCarthy the lethal: ‘You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?’

Shut a library. Close a school. Cut bin collections. End public toilets. Slash workers’ wages. Tell everybody the cuts are unavoidable. But for God’s sake give Bryn the Merciless a tax break.

Look at the faces opposite again.

Ask Joseph Welch’s question of them.

News

Police ask for witnesses after single vehicle collision on A477

Published

4 mins ago

November 21, 2024

Tom Sinclair

A SINGLE-VEHICLE road traffic collision occurred on the A477 between Redberth and Broadmoor, Pembrokeshire, early this morning (Thursday, Nov 21).

Dyfed-Powys Police were called to the scene at around 7:10am. One person was taken to hospital with injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening.

The road was closed while emergency services attended, and the vehicle was recovered. It reopened at approximately 9:20am.

Police are appealing for anyone with information, dash cam, or CCTV footage to come forward.

Contact methods:
🖥️ | Submit online
📧 | Email: [email protected]
💬 | Direct message on social media
📞 | Call 101

Alternatively, you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously by calling 0800 555 111 or visiting crimestoppers-uk.org.

Please quote reference: 034 of 21st November.

News

Using nature-based solutions to ai water quality improvements in Pembrokeshire

Published

7 mins ago

November 21, 2024

Tom Sinclair

A NATURAL RESOURCES WALES project on the Western Cleddau river in Pembrokeshire is harnessing the power of trees to reduce nutrient pollution and improve water quality.

Approximately 6,500 trees have been planted along the banks of the river near it’s confluence with the Eastern Cleddau, to soak up excess nutrients from agricultural land run off.

The corridors of trees, averaging 14metres in width, act as buffer strips between farmland and the river and have been planted on non-productive land. They have been introduced with the full support of the landowner, who was eager to introduce positive environmental change.

As well as providing benefits to the Special Area of Conservation river, the new trees will provide connection with existing natural woodland on the land, benefiting a range of plant and wildlife species.

The trees were planted by contractors Coed Porffor/Purple Trees and the planting operation took five planters five full days to complete.

Separately, the project has also seen over 1000m of new fencing installed to prevent livestock accessing the river.

Andrew Lewis, from NRW’s Marine Projects team said: “The Western Cleddau and Milford Haven estuary are incredibly special places, designated for a range of rare and threatened species and habitats including lamprey, otter, mudflats and marshes.

“We’re grateful for the support of the landowner, who allowed us to undertake such large-scale tree planting on the land. We worked closely with the landowner to develop this project and identify suitable areas of land which were least productive.

“In years to come, these trees will act as an important filter, reducing the amount of excess nutrients reaching the Western Cleddau, that are impacting the Special Area of Conservation river and estuary.”

The Western and Eastern Cleddau rivers converge at Picton Point to form the Daugleddau estuary at Milford Haven. The estuary is designated as a Marine Special Area of Conservation, while significant stretches of its coastline are also designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The Western Cleddau faces significant water quality challenges, predominantly due to nitrate, phosphate and sediment pollution. These pollutants contribute significantly to water quality failures in the catchment under the Water Framework Directive (England and Wales) Regulations 2017.

The project has been funded by the Welsh Government’s Water Capital Programme, which supports a number of environmental priorities including river restoration, metal mine remediation, fisheries and water quality.

It supports similar initiatives being undertaken in the area to improve the Western Cleddau, including river restoration efforts undertaken by the Pembrokeshire River Restoration Project.

News

Teachers were ‘absolutely horrible’ to a girl who died after cyber-bullying

Published

31 mins ago

November 21, 2024

Tom Sinclair

A 14-YEAR-OLD girl who died following a harrowing cyberbullying campaign was “let down at every possible opportunity” by her school, an inquest heard this week.

Megan Evans, from Milford Haven, was found dead at her home in February 2017 after allegedly being targeted online with an “I hate Megan Evans” group and other abusive messages urging her to “kill herself.”

Her heartbroken mother, Nicola Harteveld, discovered additional bullying groups after logging into Megan’s social media accounts.

Allegations against teachers

Megan’s best friend, Chloe Boswell, told the inquest in Haverfordwest that the school environment added to Megan’s distress. Chloe, now 22, described the teachers as “absolutely horrible” to Megan, claiming one staff member responsible for behavior management “picked on her” about her uniform.

“The school didn’t create a safe space for students to speak about bullying,” Chloe said.

Nicola Harteveld shared similar frustrations, accusing the school of failing to address her daughter’s struggles. “At every opportunity, she was belittled by people she was supposed to trust,” Nicola told the inquest.

The lead-up to Megan’s death

The hearing was told Megan appeared to be her “normal bubbly self” on the day of her death. She had attended a school meeting about a trip to France and seemed in good spirits.

Later that evening, her parents left for Cardiff with Megan’s younger siblings, leaving her at home with her older siblings. Around 10:00pm, her brother found her locked in an upstairs bathroom. Despite efforts from her family and emergency services, Megan could not be saved.

Friends said Megan had expressed feelings of hopelessness on Snapchat before her death. Her friend Travis Johnson recalled Megan saying, “I CBA [could not be bothered] anymore,” hours before she died.

***Megan Evans: Was found dead at her home in February 2017 (Image: Family)***

But the inquest heard differing views on whether Megan was bullied. While Chloe reported witnessing bullying and suggested students felt unable to confide in teachers, Malcolm Duthie, representing Pembrokeshire County Council, said friends questioned at the time did not believe Megan was being bullied.

Duthie acknowledged the difficulty schools face in tracking online abuse, particularly on platforms like Snapchat, where messages vanish after 24 hours.

Megan was remembered as a talented artist, hockey player, and a caring, vibrant teenager. Her family described her as having “a big heart” and bringing “love and laughter” to their home.

In the wake of Megan’s death, her mother founded Megan’s Starr Foundation, a charity offering free counseling and peer support to young people across Pembrokeshire. Nicola has since campaigned to raise awareness of mental health challenges and the dangers of social media bullying.

The inquest continues.

For confidential support, contact Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org.