LEGAL discussions are ongoing about Pembrokeshire County Council potentially recouping a £200,000 insurance excess paid by it following the 2022 fire at Manorbier school.
Manorbier Church in Wales VC School and its adjoining schoolhouse was severely damaged by a fire on October 11 of 2022, which broke out in the school roof space.

Pupils and staff were successfully evacuated with no injuries, and a ‘school from school’ was set up in Jameston Village Hall, after a brief period of sanctuary at the nearby Buttyland caravan site.

Pembrokeshire County Council’s insurers have previously said the fire was accidentally started while ‘hot works’ were being carried out by contractors to renew an adjacent flat roof, but, as has previously been stressed, no liability has been accepted to date.

Councillors have previously heard the majority of costs were likely to be met from the council’s insurers, with the caveat of the unknown issue of liability and its effect on a £200,000 insurance excess.

A submitted question, by Councillor Aled Thomas, heard at the full council meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council on May 9, asked Cabinet Member for Education and Welsh Language Cllr Guy Woodham “to update the chamber on what progress the Cabinet have made in recouping the £200,000 insurance excess paid following the devastating non-fault fire at Manorbier school”.

Councillors have previously been told by Cllr Woodham: “The legal issues are not straightforward but will be robustly taken forward.

“At this stage it’s still subject to legal discussion. The excess will be covered by a fund the council holds for insurance excess.”

He said that, if liability was found or accepted, the council would “pursue for the full maximum claim of the costs associated with the fire”.

Responding to Cllr Thomas’s question at full council, Cllr Woodham said there was a limited amount of information he could make public due to ongoing active proceedings.

CARMARTHENSHIRE Residents Action Group (CRAiG Sir Gâr) has challenged Carmarthenshire County Council leader Cllr Darren Price to stop funding Bute Energy through the council’s pension fund investment at today’s Cabinet meeting at County Hall. 

Green Gen / Bute Energy is proposing to run at least two pylon chains through Carmarthenshire’s countryside’s decimating the historic landscape of the Tywi Valley and villages and along the A485.  Councillors including Plaid Cymru Council Leader Darren Price have voiced their opposition.  Yet Carmarthenshire is one of seven Welsh local authorities to invest its pension fund in Bute Energy.  In contrast, neighbouring Powys County Council has declined to invest in the controversial firm.

Havard Hughes, local resident and spokesperson for the Carmarthenshire Residents’ Action Group commented: “We’ve challenged the County Council on their funding of Bute Energy because both Cllr Darren Price and Cllr Ann Davies have been vocal in their words about the firm’s pylon schemes.  However it is utterly ludicrous that the Council they run as the Cabinet has not just been slow to act but is actively funding Bute Energy.

“Carmarthenshire County Council holds the key to killing off Bute Energy’s schemes as they are the consenting authority for the sub-stations which will connect them to the national grid.  This is why residents are so concerned about a conflict of interest.  Moreover, we believe that the withdrawal of Carmarthenshire’s investment would have a domino effect on Bute Energy’s funding. 

“Cllr Price and Cllr Davies have the opportunity to demonstrate leadership on this issue by pulling Carmarthenshire’s funds out of Bute Energy.  Instead we have the town hall farce whereby they claim, on the one hand there is nothing they can do; but state that their representative on the pension board, which Carmarthenshire itself runs, will have some “stern words”.  If Carmarthenshire is serious about making Bute Energy listen to residents then they should immediately follow Powys’s lead and disinvest. 

“The elephant in the room is that Powys County Council, which is also affected by Bute Energy, have managed exclude their pension fund investment.  Darren Price and Ann Davies cannot claim ignorance as Carmarthenshire has one of the largest Wind-industrial zones designated in the whole of Wales in the Welsh Government’s Future Wales 2040 plan.  If it was obvious to Powys this would be a problem then why not to Carmarthenshire’s representatives on the fund?

“This investment generates a direct conflict of interest between the interests of the Council in maximising its return and that of residents in minimising harm.  Bute Energy is already arguing that burying cables will be more expensive.  Lower profits might mean happier residents; but it will also mean lower investment returns to Dyfed Pension funds members many of whom are elected to or are employed by Carmarthenshire County Council. 

It is time for Cllr Price and Cllr Ann Davies to end the excuses and take action that Bute Energy will understand.  So far the most decisive action we’ve seen from Plaid Cymru on Bute has been to give Bute Energy’s Public Affairs Adviser a well-paid job for life in the House of Lords.  Residents deserve deeds not empty words form our Plaid Cymru politicians in County Hall.”

A CALL to prevent a return to “the dark days” of Pembrokeshire’s previous administration drew the ire of one of its members, with talk of the “dark days” of Tony Blair and the Iraq war raised in County Hall.

In a submitted question before Pembrokeshire County Council at its May meeting, Councillor Maureen Bowen had asked: “Under the previous Independent Political Group Administration the Pembroke Dock Commercial Property Grant Scheme was defrauded in a way the report to last council described as ‘extremely unsophisticated and simplistic’ not only did the Independent Political Group Administration defend the scheme, they actually took to their feet in the council chamber to attack those highlighting shortcomings in the scheme.

“Later in the report the author also states: ‘the evidence is staggering and shows utter incompetence bordering on complicity’.

“Does the Leader agree with me that it’s every members’ duty to prevent any return to the dark days of Independent Political Group control of Pembrokeshire Council?”

Cllr Bowen’s quest drew the anger of Independent group member Cllr Alan Dennison, who called -through a point order – for the question to be struck out, describing it as “another pointless point-scoring exercise”.

“It was subject of extensive inquiries to include a police investigation which concluded with CPS advice of no further action, my understanding is there was no loss to the public purse.

“Cllr Bowen, like myself, and most members of the chamber were not elected county councillors when this matter occurred, and to suggest that I, and other councillors elected since, are culpable for the pat is akin to me accusing Kier Starmer as being as equally culpable as Tony Blair for taking Britain to war against Saddam Hussain for weapons of mass destruction, and voting Labour at the next general election will return us to the dark Labour days.

“I hope the presiding member will agree that questions such as this are frivolous and vexatious and distract us from getting down to the business we are elected for.”

Presiding member Cllr Simon Hancock said: “We have refused questions in the past, this didn’t come to the bar.”

Answering the question, the-then leader Cllr David Simpson, who had previously announced he was to step down, said: “The point that she [Cllr Bowen] makes has been made in tabling the question.

“The issues relating to the grant scheme reflected extremely poorly on the council, there can be no doubt about that. In this administration we have been open to the truth and learning the lesson to be sure it never happens again.”

More than a decade ago Hakin county councillor Cllr Mike Stoddart uncovered irregularities in a council-administered Commercial Property Grant Scheme (CPGS) in Pembroke and Pembroke Dock, funded by the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO).

Irregular payments of around £60,000 were found to have been made to a developer – in respect of properties on Dimond Street and Meyrick Street – who offered to pay back a total of £180,000 having received payments for other projects.

The council had to repay £309,000 to WEFO and take steps to rewrite the CPGS procedure manual to close loopholes in order to minimise the opportunities for fraud stated Cllr Stoddart.

After much fighting – and facing false accusations from fellow councillors of lying – Cllr Stoddart’s evidence was reported to police following a formal review in 2014.

In 2019 the Crown Prosecution Service said there would be no charges following the five-year investigation.