A BY-ELECTION is set to be held in Pembroke Dock Market Ward following confirmation that the required requests have been received to fill a vacancy on Pembrokeshire County Council.

The poll, if contested, will take place on Thursday, July 9.

The Notice of Election is due to be published on Thursday, June 4, with nominations open between 10:00am and 4:00pm from June 4 to June 12.

The count will take place on the morning of Friday, July 10.

Pembrokeshire County Council Chief Executive, William Bramble CBE, confirmed the timetable in an email to county councillors.

He said further details about the nomination process would be included in the Notice of Election, which will be made available on the council’s website.

Anyone requiring further information has been advised to contact Sian Waters, Electoral Services Manager, by emailing [email protected] or calling 01437 775714.

A PEMBROKESHIRE councillor has been suspended from office for four months for breaching the authority’s code of conduct over a planning matter on behalf of a friend he had holidayed in Mexico with.

At a May 26 extraordinary meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s standards committee, Milford Haven North county councillor Alan Dennison was alleged, and later found to have, breached the code of conduct for members.

The committee found Cllr Dennison failed to declare personal and prejudicial interests in relation to a call by an applicant known to him to have a planning application decided by committee rather than by officers.

In an application before Pembrokeshire County Council, Lee Bridges had sought permission for retrospective engineering works to provide an external dining area at Masonic Hall, Imperial Function Centre, Hamilton Terrace Address, Milford Haven, works having started in 2021.

The application was due to be decided by planning officers, but, at the request of Cllr Dennison on behalf of local member Councillor Terry Davies, who was unable to attend due to a family issue, an unsuccessful call for it to be decided by councillors was brought before the county council’s planning delegation panel meeting of February 2025.

The May 2025 special standards meeting heard of a long string of connections between Cllr Dennison and Mr Bridges.

These included the councillor had been secretary, from 2018-2022, of the local Masonic Lodge which owned the building where the works took place, and becoming director of Imperial Hall Ltd, Mr Bridges’ company, from 2020-2023 after providing a since-repaid loan to him.

The meeting also heard Cllr Dennison was aware of the planning history regarding the applicant, who he and his family had gone on a two-week holiday with Mr Bridges and his family to Mexico, their connection “more than a casual acquaintanceship”.

The committee also heard the issue of a potential prejudicial interest was raised with Cllr Dennison by the council’s monitoring officer, advising him to withdraw representations at the delegation meeting due to a “perception of bias and predetermination”.

After concerns were raised by councillors, a complaint was made to the Ombudsman by Assistant chief Executive Richard Brown; the Ombudsman concluding a member of the public with the knowledge of the facts would see a potential prejudicial interest.

Cllr Dennison, at the meeting, said his representations at the delegation meeting were only made in a signed-for form on behalf of Cllr Davies, saying it was not his but Cllr Davies’ call, he only attending the meeting as a member of the public.

Speaking on behalf of Cllr Dennison, applicant Lee Bridges said he had been provided with the loan by Cllr Dennison after he encountered financial difficulties, making him a director for a period of time “as a form of gratitude,” adding he had approached Cllr Davies as local member over the planning issue, but he was unable to proceed at the meeting due family issues.

Members found that Cllr Dennison had a personal interest based on his “close personal association with Mr Bridges,” along with Cllr Dennison being a member of the Masonic Lodge which occupied the land and building, along with the ongoing friendship effectively made him “an advocate”.

They also found that Cllr Dennison should have left the public gallery as soon as he became aware of the item under discussion, in accordance with Ombudsman guidelines.

Cllr Dennison said there was confusion over the monitoring officer advice given and felt he was unfairly treated over a lack of information about legal support available to him during the hearing process, hoping that “lessons would be learned” council-wide.

Defending himself personally, he said he, as a councillor, was “driven for the benefit of the people of Pembrokeshire,” with his councillor salary donated to a dogs’ hospital charity in Sri Lanka.

Cllr Dennison was told the breach would attract a “mid-level suspension,” aggravated by his “blatant disregard of the advice of the monitoring officer,” his “seeking to unfairly blame others,” along with “refusal to accept the facts despite clear evidence to the contrary and continuing to deny the facts,” mitigated by the isolated nature of the offence, his “previous good service” and “relatively short length of service,” having first become a councillor in 2022.

Swansea Council says demand has risen sharply, but new supported accommodation is expected to reduce reliance on hotels

SWANSEA COUNCIL spent more than £7.2m placing people in bed and breakfast accommodation last year, as the city continues to face mounting pressure from homelessness and a shortage of affordable homes.

The bill for 2025-26 was almost three times higher than in 2022-23, when temporary accommodation costs stood at £2.5m.

Figures released under freedom of information laws show 1,499 people were placed in B&B accommodation during the year. The most expensive placement lasted 498 nights and cost £34,860, equal to £70 per night.

The council recovered around £3.4m through Welsh Government funding, housing benefit and Home Office funding for released prisoners.

A council spokesman said Swansea, like towns and cities across the UK, was facing both a housing shortage and rising demand.

He said many people needing emergency accommodation were dealing with difficult circumstances, including family breakdown or domestic abuse.

The authority hopes its reliance on bed and breakfasts will fall following the opening of Llys Glas, the former Swansea Central police station on Orchard Street, which has been converted with Codi Group into temporary supported accommodation.

The building opened in January and provides around 70 rooms for single people and couples, along with kitchen facilities.

Further supported accommodation is also planned at a former office block and student development on St Helen’s Road.

Homelessness charity The Wallich said the costs were high, but warned that the alternative would be leaving vulnerable people without support.

A spokeswoman said Wales had too many older homes and too few properties available, adding that councils were struggling to find enough social housing.

She said private rents could not solve the crisis, with the average one-bedroom flat in Swansea now costing around £750 per month, compared with a local housing allowance rate of £525.

She added that rough sleeper teams in Swansea had not seen an increase in people sleeping on the streets since the pandemic, despite the rise in housing demand.

The Welsh Local Government Association said more than 10,500 people were currently in emergency temporary accommodation across Wales, including more than 2,200 children.

A spokesman said building more social rented homes remained a vital part of the response.

The new Welsh Government is expected to set out its homelessness priorities shortly.