Labour’s Caerphilly Council leader Harry Andrews will face a no confidence motion at a meeting on Tuesday.
The opposition Plaid Cymru group on Caerphilly County Borough Council has tabled the motion in response to the fallout from a critical Wales Audit Office report into pay rises for senior council officers.
The ruling Labour group has called the motion a “desperate distraction”.
Councillor Colin Mann, leader of the Plaid Cymru group, said: “The chief executive is under suspension but the political leadership must also accept responsibility for this debacle, the worst crisis since Caerphilly council was established in the mid-1990s.
“Cllr Andrews, and indeed his cabinet colleagues, were aware of the contents of the chief executive’s report and that of the Hay Group before the Senior Remuneration Panel met last September.
“But Cllr Andrews did nothing – he allowed that report to go to the Senior Remuneration Committee knowing it would be agreed by his cabinet members on the committee.”
Councillor Mann added: “By supporting this pay rise Cllr Andrews showed himself to be out of touch with the public, out of touch with employees and out of touch with councillors from all sides of the political divide.”
Council chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan was suspended after a Wales Audit Office report found the decision to award huge pay rises to 21 senior bosses as unlawful. Police are also carrying out an investigation.
Caerphilly Labour councillors have branded the no confidence motion as a “desperate distraction”.
Cllr Keith Reynolds, Deputy Leader of Caerphilly Council, said: “Labour is focusing our council’s efforts on protecting essential services and promoting local economic recovery.
“Instead of apologising for their involvement in the remuneration committee and mucking in to help, the Plaid leadership gleefully follow a ‘scorched earth’ policy of trying to destroy our council and its leadership for some misguided reasons of their own.
“This can only end up damaging services and hurting the people we represent.”
Cllr Reynolds added: “Harry Andrews is the best Leader Caerphilly Council’s ever had. His integrity and passion for our county borough are an inspiration to the whole council, and he’s played a major part in putting Caerphilly County Borough Council at the forefront of Welsh local authorities. I’m sure that council will roundly reject Colin Mann’s malicious motion on Tuesday.”
- Caerphilly Council bosses under fire over pay increase
- Caerphilly Council staff voice anger at managers’ pay increase
- Plaid Cymru want Caerphilly Council bosses’ pay hike reversed
- Caerphilly Council managers’ pay rises to be investigated, Labour promises
- Caerphilly Labour councillor reported to Public Services Ombudsman
- Transparency needed, says First Minister, after Caerphilly Council pay row
- Plaid Cymru councillor reported to Public Services Ombudsman in pay row
- Labour councillor cleared by Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
- ‘Compromise’ voted for in Caerphilly Council pay row
- Fresh war of words over Caerphilly Council pay deal
- Decision to give Caerphilly Council bosses huge pay rises deemed “unlawful” by Wales Audit Office
- Police launch investigation into Caerphilly Council pay rises
- Caerphilly Council paid £7,000 for experts’ advice in pay row
- Caerphilly Council chief executive suspended in wake of Wales Audit Office report into pay row
- Caerphilly Council appoints acting chief executive in wake of pay scandal
- Plaid and Labour point finger at each other over damning Wales Audit Office report
- Caerphilly County Borough Council sets up own investigation into pay row
Cllr Mann says "By supporting this pay rise Cllr Andrews showed himself to be out of touch with the public, out of touch with employees and out of touch with councillors from all sides of the political divide.” Can he state then why Cllr James Fussell, the Plaid representative on the committee, failed to vote against these rises?? We never hear anything about their role in this and I don't ever expect we ever will.
If Plaid's hands are clean here I'll eat my hat. Anybody with an ounce of sense will realise that the Plaid leader knew all about these pay rises in September. Surely the Plaid representative would have informed Cllr Mann which way the vote went last September. Therefore Cllr Mann clearly stayed quiet because his representative was involved and made the same decision. Plaid are treating Observer readers like fools.
Why do people insist on diverting attention from the issues in hand. Both Tony and Vivian appear to have nothing to say about the motion of no confidence, why not make a case for what confidence they do actually have in the leader of the council in relation to their (admitted) knowledge of the dodgy report upon which the pay hikes were based, and the entire circumstances surrounding that process. Your question about the Plaid Leadership involvement and culpability would have credibility if you were able to state a reasonable case in support of the Labour Leaderships role in it. over to you.
I notice there is never an answer to any of the questions put to Plaid on these pages. They really do show contempt for the public by not giving a simple answer to a straight question. They can have a go at Labour for their role in this and that is fair game. To act holier than thou over this episode however is completely disingenuous.
Why aren't Labour accepting responsibility and looking to blame the opposition for this though? They have the power and they must accept the responsibility that comes with it. If the shoe was on the other foot, what would a Labour party in opposition be doing? Sitting back and saying nothing? Guess again. They would be shouting from the roof tops about Caerffili being a rotten borough and rightly so.
Today's story about the car allowances for top officers will only add to the impression that things have been allowed to spiral out of control in Caerffili. For heaven's sake Labour need to stop finger-pointing and looking to others to blame and sort this mess out. Pronto.
Everyone associated with this sordid, dishonest and manipulative enterprise should have resigned months ago, and I include Harry Andrews in that as well.I don't care what political stripe those involved belong to, the Audit Report has make clear the seriousness of events and quite frankly, there has been a complete lack of intelligence and honesty in our Officers' and Councillors' actions.
I wouldn't trust any of those involved with a wheelbarrow full of horse manure.
As a council which was until recently run by Plaid, I fully expect the present leader to thank Plaid for the good work they have done in the past. But I wouldn't expect him to be that honest. Labour will ensure they win on Tuesday. When's the next election?
I find it very strange that 21 top paid officials have received such high pay awards whilst the lowly council workers are being squeezed in order to help the country out of a mess that was the fault of private companies (banks). This kind of action is fairly typical of a Tory led council not a traditional Labour led council. People of the county should take a long hard look around at them. Apathy rules and it suits all political parties because they know, only too well, that the PLEBS (us) will whinge about it, but do nothing else. Cllr Keith Reynolds, Deputy Leader of Caerphilly Council states; “Labour is focusing our council’s efforts on protecting essential services and promoting local economic recovery" is totally way off the mark and misleading. The services within the council are being run down all the time. Some Social Service employees have had their wages cut as a means of saving money and yet an astronomical amount of money is given to these high flyers. Please! Please! Please! people of Caerphilly let' stand up and shout for ourselves. Demand a full and thorough investigation, and, if need be, prosecution and whatever that may bring with it. I am not personally attacking Harry Andrews, personally I respect the guy, he is a figurehead, and as such must accept the responsibility that goes with his position. What I can tell you is that there were many more fingers in that pie. Do not become all party political about this situation as Plaid, or, any other party would act in a similar manner in specific circumstances. Politicians of today are not what they once were, many of them (not all) are only in it for personal gain.
I see the Plaid activists are out in force. I have never doubted Labour's involvement in this but all I ask for is clarity on the oppositions role in the whole thing. I happen to think that any worthy opposition would have by now stated their role and said what they knew and when. How did their man vote on the panel etc. If the opposition are clean then I hold my hands up. I have my doubts though as they were so silent for such a long period of time before the story broke. Its not good enough.
When I first saw this report I missed this pearler from Cllr Keith Reynolds: "Harry Andrews is the best Leader Caerphilly Council’s ever had."
God help us if this is the best Labour can offer. Is Councillor Reynolds for real?? What planet does he think the residents of Caerphilly county borough are on??
I cannot take anything this man says seriously…….ever again.
Tony: The problem you highlight is real, but, the exact same issues arise in respect to those taking these odious decisions in the first place,i.e. our Labour Council.
The other problem is of course that the Observer, whilst willing to censor arguments submitted to them for publication, are able to `censor out` comments it does not `consider` equitable to whichever side they chose to take on a particular issue, that is unfair to one party, one side, or the other in this debate and therefore disingenuous to both sides.
This blog is not a fair representation of what people are saying on the issues, I have been copied into many submissions which have not found themselves onto these pages, if they did you may form a different view
The only time we don't publish comments is when we consider them to be defamatory. I like to think we're pretty fair and even-handed on our reporting with all political parties and the feedback we get from the majority of our readers suggests we are.
Thanks for reading.
Richard Gurner
Editor
How do you know that Cllr Harry Andrews knew for certain about these pay increases before hand? I haven't read anything whereby it has stated that Cllr Andrews knew beforehand about the payrises before they were given. Also how did the Plaid Representative vote, did he/she vote for or against the payrises? Also why did they have a payrise after Labour took control of the council, why were the pay increases not sorted out before when Plaid Cymru had control? As surely if they had the chief executive’s report and that of the Hay Group at the September meeting as stated in this article, the Hay group would've been asked to do this report whilst Plaid were still in control of the council and not Labour? Is it just a case of them passing the buck onto someone else as they didn't want any of the inevitable flak that would come to whomever implemented these increases.
Trefor, asking questions of Plaid is not conditional upon justifying the actions of Labour. Neither does it equate to support of Labour or having to justify your right to ask a question of elected representatives. I don't understand why you are trying to silence people with such nonsense.
Likewise, I don't understand what copied submissions is all about. It makes no sense. Are you saying that people have copied your comments? Why is this blog not a fair representation of what people are saying? I have read numerous comments of yours, none of which were censored. This conspiracy theory seems a little OTT to me. Are you upset because people wont do as you say?
I enjoy reading your posts even though I don't always agree with them. I can't work out what you're on about here though. Maybe you could explain?
Helen, the issue of censorship of all sorts concerns me, but, specifically, in respect to my posting on the 23rd April, I was expressing my view in relation to the number of repeated`, printed, postings from individuals who insist on repeatedly expanding the topic in hand to include questions about the Deputy Leader of Plaid Cymru, who`s behaviour in the pay hike scandal is under statutory investigation by the Local Government Commissioner for Wales. And to my recollection, and I could be wrong, no such story has ever appeared in this on line news paper, so, my question would be `what is the relevance of those blogs which highlight it as an issues under the No Confidence Motion story"?
My remark about being aware of unprinted comments:, I, together with a large group of others in the larger Caerphilly Community exchange copy of comments we have posted to the Observer and elsewhere, so, we are aware of what is and what comments are not posted from time to time on lots of issues, sy least by people in that, informal, group.
In the case of the No Confidence Motion story the printed blogs largely appear to attack Plaids Position, and not explain Labours position, which is something many thousands of us supporters are waiting for, not just that, they appear to suggest that Cllr James Fussell can respond, he cannot do so whilst under investigation, so, the questions have no current relevance, ( and I am not a specific Plaid Cymru Supporter), in fairness, and, in the interest of all those readers of the CO it is important for any news media, in censoring its public`blog` tool, to ensure that a balanced and equitable representative view is being portrayed, better to do so by `editing` than by total censorship of comments.
I do not, nor would I or have I, ever expected others to necessarily agree with me or my comments, in fact, on the contrary, frankly, that never crosses my mind, as I am sure it never crosses your mind when you post your comments, I express my views whenever I have one, and I am delighted if my comments prompts others to do the same, agreeing with me or not. Unlike politicians I am not in the popularity game so such public acceptance of my views is completely unimportant, unlike others, my comments are attributed to me, why others are reluctant to identify themselves when they use this local media tool to express a view demonstrates their lack of personal confidence in wanting the broader community of Caerphilly to know who they are, do these faceless individuals have the right to seek answers from me?
Trefor irrespective of the Plaid bashing you refer to is this not an indication of democracy? Maybe these people are less lethargic than Plaid supporters, maybe it is a political ploy to deflect blame, but to suggest the CO is censoring is unfair. Unless, of course, you expect the editor to only allow the same number of criticisms against each party? I have just realised that I have now joined the bandwagon of deflecting the real issues at hand. Maybe both parties could agree to publish details of meetings which led to this current situation. Even if they are made to wait until after the police investigation is complete. In the meantime I am sure the legal depts. of each party would be able to advise them on information that can be given in the interests of openness, not party political.
why do people concentrate exclusively on the political aspect of this long running fiasco? officers of the Council are just as much (if not more) culpable. It was officers of the council who wrote the report and decided how much of the external consultant's report was included for committee to consider. Never in a million years would Officers with so many years experience not know that they shouldn't have been present at the committee meeting; no words of apology have ever been expressed by them; are they collectively keeping quiet for the whole charade to blow over?
Similarly where has the Avon and Somerset police gone? How long does a simple report take to prepare?
Tom: I agree, but will it ever happen????
Did Cllr Andrews approve the one-off payments made to 40 senior officers for their loss of essential car allowances (as reported recently in other newspapers)?
Trefor: I had not realised that you were nearly so organised as to be part of an orchestrated political campaign. If you have time enough for such PR then good luck to you.
If you have a divergent view to those posted then it is up to you to post an opposing position in your own comments or those on behalf of the organisation you seek to represent. Whining that people post comments that you do not approve of is hardly censorship. Indeed it seems the only censorship you speak of is that you would seek to impose.
I'm not aware of your being a spokesperson for the Plaid party, I'm quite sure they speak for themselves without reliance upon yourself.
As a faceless individual yourself, indeed further yet, an organised faceless individual, then I have no idea what you are waffling on about. If you post controversial comments then of course people will ask questions. Whilst you might think yourself above this and your natural tendency it seems is to seek to censor anything you disagree with, this is not how debate works.
I also note that you have made numerous subsequent comments, none of which appear to have been censored. It seems to less an issue of censorship and more an intolerance of open debate on your part.