COUNCILLORS voted yesterday to take no further action to reclaim money paid to chief executive Bryn Parry-Jones under a pension arrangement declared unlawful by the Wales Audit Office.

Before the vote, Cllr Peter Stock told the Herald: “It should be open and accountable, that’s the most important thing. The general public are so interested in what’s happening in Pembrokeshire at the moment, and I don’t believe anything should be done behind closed doors. I do believe that anything that does happen in County Council must be open, and the general public must be aware of the situation and Pembrokeshire County Council must be at all times open to the public for them to see which way this Authority is really being run. These things are happening, at a regular period, and it has to stop.”

The recorded vote of yesterday’s debate on reclaiming Bryn Parry Jones’ pension was taken in three parts.

The first – and key – vote was whether the discussion should be held in secret with members of the public excluded and the webcast suspended.

Voting in favour of secrecy were councillors:

Jamie Adams, John Allen-Mirehouse, Daphne Bush, David Edwards, Wynne Evans, Lyndon Frayling, Huw George, Brian Hall, Simon Hancock, Paul Harries, Umelda Havard, David James, Michael John, Stephen Joseph, Keith Lewis, Rob Lewis, Pearl Llewellyn, Peter Morgan, Elwyn Morse, David Neale, Myles Pepper, Sue Perkins, David Pugh, David Rees, Tom Richards, Ken Rowlands, David Simpson, Rob Summons, Arwyn Williams, and Steve Yelland (all IPPG)

They were supported by unaffiliated Councillors Owen James, Phil Kidney and Conservative councillor Stan Hudson

Voting to allow the public to witness the debate about public money were councillors:

Phil Baker, Roderick Bowen, Tony Brinsden, David Bryan, Pat Davies, Tessa Hodgson, David Howlett, Lyn Jenkins, Bob Kilmister, Alison Lee, David Lloyd, Paul Miller, Jonathan Nutting, Gwilym Price, Rhys Sinnett, Peter Stock, Mike Stoddart, Viv Stoddart, Tom Tudor, Tony Wilcox, Jacob Williams, Mike Williams, and Guy Woodham

Councillor Reg Owens abstained. Councillors John Davies, Mike Evans and Jonathan Preston were absent from the meeting.

The main motion was proposed by Councillors Roderick Bowen, Paul Miller, Mike Stoddart, Tony Wilcox, and Jacob Williams “That council approve action to investigate the recovery of any monies paid under the scheme for senior officers approved at the senior staff committee on 28th September 2011 under agenda item 6.”

That item was subject to an amendment proposed by Plaid Cymru that proposed taking no further action but instead registering an expression of regret at the situation.

An alternative motion proposed by IPPG leader Jamie Adams proposed that no further action be taken at all.

The vote on the Plaid amendment was as follows:

For the amendment: Phil Baker, Roderick Bowen, Tony Brinsden, David Bryan, Paul Harries, Tessa Hodgson, David Howlett, Stan Hudson, Owen James, Lyn Jenkins, Michael John, Stephen Joseph, Bob Kilmister, David Lloyd, Jonathan Nutting, Reg Owens, Rhys Sinnett, Peter Stock, Mike Stoddart, Vivien Stoddart, Jacob Williams, Mike Williams

Against the amendment: Jamie Adams, John Allen-Mirehouse, Daphne Bush, David Edwards, Wynne Evans, Lyndon Frayling, Huw George, Brian Hall, Umelda Havard, David James, , Keith Lewis, Rob Lewis, Pearl Llewellyn, Peter Morgan, Elwyn Morse, David Neale, Myles Pepper, Sue Perkins, David Pugh, David Rees, Tom Richards, Ken Rowlands, David Simpson, Rob Summons, Arwyn Williams, and Steve Yelland (all IPPG);  Pat Davies, Alison Lee, David Lloyd, Paul Miller, Gwilym Price, Tom Tudor, Tony Wilcox, Guy Woodham (all Labour) & Phil Kidney (unaffiliated)

Voting in favour of IPPG Leader’s Jamie Adams’ amendment were:

Jamie Adams, John Allen-Mirehouse, Daphne Bush, David Edwards, Wynne Evans, Lyndon Frayling, Huw George, Brian Hall, Simon Hancock, Paul Harries, Umelda Havard, David James, Lyn Jenkins, Michael John, Keith Lewis, Rob Lewis, Pearl Llewellyn, Peter Morgan, Elwyn Morse, David Neale, Myles Pepper, Sue Perkins, David Pugh, David Rees, Tom Richards, Ken Rowlands, David Simpson, Rob Summons, Arwyn Williams, and Steve Yelland (all IPPG)

They were joined by unaffiliated Councillors Owen James, Phil Kidney and Conservative Councillor Stan Hudson

Voting against the IPPG amendment to do nothing were:

Phil Baker, Roderick Bowen, Pat Davies, Tessa Hodgson, David Howlett, Stephen Joseph, Bob Kilmister, Alison Lee, David Lloyd, Paul Miller,  Jonathan Nutting, Gwilym Price, Rhys Sinnett, Peter Stock, Mike Stoddart, Vivien Stoddart, Tom Tudor, Jacob Williams, Mike Williams, Tony Wilcox, Guy Woodham

Councillors Tony Brinsden, David Bryan, David Howlett, Stephen Joseph, and Reg Owens abstained

There were sharp recriminations after the meeting.

Conservative group leader David Howlett told the Herald:

“With David Bryan, I voted for a public debate which was lost and so we went into private session. We supported a Plaid amendment that it would be foolish to pursue court action due to costs but expressed regret that the money was not being returned.

“Some IPPG members supported this and had Labour members also supported it, we would have won. Because Labour did not support the Plaid amendment, we had another vote to take no further action, from which I abstained.

“Labour’s stance meant the end result was no further action would be taken. I have to ask whether (Labour leader) Paul Miller sees this as a result, because that is what he and his group made sure happened.”

Labour leader Paul Miller responded:

Labour leader Paul Miller told us:

“On principle, the Labour group decided not to accept anything less than the Chief Executive being forced to pay back the money unlawfully paid to him.

“The vote today is not the end of the matter and I still firmly believe that the Council must take action to get the money back.”

Commenting on the debate, Cllr David Howlett, Leader of the Conservative Group on Pembrokeshire County Council said “I believe in transparency and openness so I voted for the debate to be held in public. Unfortunately that vote was lost so the debate was held in private.”

“During the debate that was held in private, many opposition Councillors voiced concern that given any legal action was not guaranteed to succeed, pursuing this would not be sensible given the costs that would be incurred could be substantial. This was a view I shared, and I voted in favour of an amendment supported by the majority of opposition parties that while a line should be drawn under this matter it was with regret that the monies had not been repaid by the two senior officers. This vote was lost by 34 votes to 23 due to the fact that the Cllr Paul Miller and his Labour group voted against this. This lost vote meant that we then voted on a proposal from the Leader, Cllr Jamie Adams that simply no further action would be taken, without any additional comment or regret at what had happened. I could not support this bland proposal.”

“Again the Labour group voted against this. I find the voting strategy of the Labour group under the Leadership of Cllr Paul Miller bizarre and naive. Had Cllr Miller come up with a proposal I would have considered the merit of it.  However to come up with nothing, vote against everything and complain about the turn of events shows inexperience. Had the Labour group voted for the amendment that was supported by the vast majority of opposition Councillors, we would have emerged with a far stronger statement. They didn’t and the actions of the Labour Group have resulted in an unsatisfactory outcome in my view.”