Independents keep iron grip on power (From Western Telegraph)

Independents keep iron grip on power

THE ruling Independent group on Pembrokeshire County Council has kept an iron grip on power in its new cabinet style government, which comes into operation today (Wednesday).

All ten cabinet members will come from the group. The chairmen of the four scrutiny committees are also likely to be Independents.

OUT goes the old style committees, which have served local government since the late 19th century.

IN comes a cabinet led by council leader Maurice Hughes, who receives a salary of £35,437, following an 80% pay rise. His team will be made up of his deputy Councillor John Allen-Mirehouse, who will be paid £25,225, and eight other members, who will receive £22,672 each.

With the basic rate for councillors also having gone up, and special payments for scrutiny committee chairmen and vice-chairman, and also the leader of the main Labour opposition group, the final bill for the new style cabinet government will be in excess of £800,000. Asked why there were no opposition members from Labour, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats in the cabinet, Councillor Hughes said: Thats democracy. If a group has a majority thats always the way councils have been run. As far as the Independent group is concerned there will be people who have political views of different parties. The cabinet will probably meet twice during a six-week cycle. While cabinet meetings will be open to the public, Councillor Hughes admitted that some things will be discussed behind closed doors. Very often, discussions go on about some things before they get to the meeting. But no decisions will be made behind closed doors, he added. The scrutiny committees will meet just after the cabinet. Each of these four committees will have ten members. Chairmen and vice-chairmen will be appointed by the full council and they are likely to be Independents.

The committees will match the political balance of the full council, with seven Independent group members to three opposition members. The committees have 48 hours to object to a cabinet decision, said the council leader. We dont want people to stop progress, but we dont want them to be in a situation where they object to everything to prevent the system working.

Im sure we wont be making many decisions that will be that controversial. We want to avoid criticism if it can be avoided. Three or four members signatures will be required to call in a decision. We dont want the opposition to call something in just to be bloody minded.