THE last Full Council meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council ‘turned into a farce’ a number of its own councillors have said.

They are now urging the council's chairman to adopt a different approach when they all next meet.

Eleven councillors have signed a letter to council chairman Cllr Arwyn William to ‘express grave concern’ at the way the July meeting was conducted.

“The decision to allow only one supplementary question from the member asking the original question has been discussed many times in our chamber and we thought that a sensible solution had been reached. The former Chairman managed this perfectly well but your approach throughout the meeting was extremely confrontational and left many members feeling that seeing democracy in action was not the paramount aim,” states the letter.

Signatories, including Cllrs Tessa Hodgson, David Bryan, David Howlett, Bob Kilmister, Mike Williams, Jacob Williams, Rhys Sinnett, Viv Stoddart and Gwilym Price, say that members are entitled to raise points of order and they should be considered.

Debate, differing views and member involvement as part of a democracy were not achieved at the last meeting they said.

“The last Council meeting turned into a farce and Councillors, members of the public and staff members in the public gallery have made their concerns very apparent.

“This is not the way that challenge and transparency in the system should be upheld. Pembrokeshire County Council has suffered enough negative publicity in the past 24 months,” adds the letter.

Cllr Williams told the Western Telegraph: “I note the concerns of these councillors (although one of them was not at the meeting in question) and I would reassure them that I take the issue of democracy extremely seriously.

“I am disappointed that none of them felt able to approach me personally about their concerns.”