Peter Black has a point

As is so often the case Peter Black AM is spot on when he points out that RCT Council could put the money they spent on buying in external legal advice to oversee the review of employees’ terms and conditions to better use.  As reported on mediawales they paid Eversheds around £100,000 for advice on staff pay.

Obviously you wouldn’t expect the Council's own Chief legal officer or the Head of HR (both on just under £100K a year) to be able to give such advice.   Would you?

As I have said previously senior officers should be earning what many would see as their over inflated salaries.  In RCT they are clearly not.

    

Hain's been out in the sun too long

Perhaps Peter Hain’s tan is real after all.  I mean he’s obviously been out in the sun too long hasn’t he?  He is now starting to hallucinate and it seems he believes  in his little fairytales

Peter Black AM has, as he often does, hit the nail on the head with this blog post.  Yes there are people unhappy with the coalition we have even lost a few members over it.  But the vast majority of Liberal Democrats in Wales and across Britain are supportive of the Westminster coalition and there is certainly no indication of the sort of splits Tango man Hain sees.

It is indeed yet another example of labour’s arrogance – their belief that they have a right to rule and anyone who cannot see that must be blind.

Well as the saying goes, there are none so blind as those who will not see.  It’s time Labour woke up and took a good look around.

Do Independent Councils work?

John Davies, leader of Pembrokeshire Council, has accused Ministers of picking on Independently run Councils. He accused them of acting politically in their reaction to the problems in Pembrokeshire over education and children’s services.  This following on the back of Blaenau Gwent becoming the first in Wales to go into special measures after a report found "systemic" management failures.

Anglesey Council has been put under the control of Commissioners, and Powys Council was not without its problems when for many years Labour and Welsh Liberal Democrats whilst being party members actually sat as Independents on the council.

It is debateable whether or not Ministers at the Welsh Government are guilty of over flexing of their muscles on a number of issues relating to local authorities.  Blogging on the issue of local; government reorganisation Peter Black said they are “Their approach has more in common with bullying than leadership.”  But are they really focusing any more attention on Independently run Councils than on any others?  Or is it a fact that these Councils are not performing as effectively as they should be.

We’ve all heard the moans and groans from people – usually those who like to snipe from the side-lines – about how all Councillors should be there for the good of the people (agreed) and there shouldn’t be any party politics only sainted individuals there to give their all for their communities!  Preferably with no exchange of money taking place to sully the hands of these blessed individuals.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are good Independent Councillors who are there for all the right reasons and who do a good job, but there are also good Councillors of all Parties who want to do their best for their communities.  Being part of a political Party does not preclude that.

Party politics gives some cohesion to the system.  Even in a party as diverse as ours!   There is a central theme, a joint purpose – even if we sometimes disagree on exactly how to achieve our goals.  We might not like the politics of those in other Parties but if nothing else it limits the number of battle fronts we have to fight on. 

Independent Councillors may be very good as ward Councillors, but in my humble opinion it seems there is rarely the political acumen (even with a small ‘p’) that allows them to engineer change or scrutinize effectively.

It surely cannot be a coincidence that the major problems in Councils throughout Wales have come about in those Councils that are largely Independently run.  We may not like what Labour do in RCT but at least our education system whilst not perfect is not teetering on the brink of collapse.

Is it fracking safe?

A US private equity backed firm  recently started    pumping highly pressurised water mixed with chemicals and sand nearly 3000m underground into a shale gas reservoir near Blackpool.

The process, known as fracking because it fractures rock to produce gas, has been criticised as having the potential to contaminate water supplies and agricultural land.

The process was halted following a small earthquake  which it was thought could have resulted from it.

Now there are plans afoot to start fracking in Llandow in the Vale of Glamorgan and that could be just the start as it is estimated there is a substantial amount of this gas throughout South Wales .  A test site is planned in Maesteg, which Welsh Liberal Democrat AM Peter Black  has already expressed concerns about.

There is the usual argument that this will bring economic rewards, but money is most certainly not everything.  This process has already been banned elsewhere, why should we be the guinea pigs for a process which we know so little about?