Manorbier Community Council Meeting - Thursday 2nd November

You're all corrupt!


This was the cry that was heard from a member of the public at the meeting of the Manorbier Community Council on Thursday November 2nd.

One of the items under discussion was the recent court case brought by ICT Marketing against the Council.

Previous discussions by the Council of this case have been in confidential sessions of the Council. A not unreasonable course of action since discussion in public would have meant forewarning the opposition of the Council's tactics in advance of the court case.

Since the hearing of the case has now finished the need for confidentiality has ceased so, at last Thursday's meeting, the Chairman gave a brief update to councillors in open session.

Later in the meeting a letter was read out from a member of the public, Mr John Tew, asking for information under the Freedom of Information Act. The Council's Proper Officer, Councillor David Neads, said that gathering the requested information would entail a considerable amount of work on his part and he then described Mr Tew as a "problem". Councillors Davies and Meyrick thought that Councillor Neads should not have used the term "problem".

To place Cllr Neads comment in context, it is worth looking at the behaviour of Mr Tew over the last couple of years.

Mr Tew is a chronic "serial" complainer. Since the new Council was formed in June 2004 he has put in numerous formal complaints to the Local Government Ombudsman alleging misconduct by various Councillors. (I don't know the exact number of complaints - perhaps one of the Councillors would like to leave a comment on this blog to let us know the exact number.) Some of these complaints have been resolved and I think I am right in saying that of those that have been resolved none have been found to have any substance. Some are still waiting to be resolved. The law requires that any formal complaint to the Ombudsman or the Monitoring Officer of Pembrokeshire County Council must be investigated. Each of these complaints wastes a considerable amount of individual Councillor's time in answering them and the time spent by the Ombudsman is paid from general taxation and if the Monitoring Officer becomes involved the cost is to the council taxpayer. No doubt Mr Tew will say that his reasons for this avalanche of complaints a wish to see Council business conducted properly and we might even believe this if he was even handed in his targets, but when we see that practically all his spleen is vented on only three Councillors (Cllr Tony Wales, Cllr David Neads and Cllr Pat Griffiths) one has to question his real motives.

The law also gives individuals the right to information held by the Council and Mr Tew is a most vigorous user of this law having made numerous requests to the Council for information with the letter read out by Councillor Neads at Thursady's meeting being the last in a long line. So one can have some sympathy with Cllr Neads use of the description "problem".

This rather mild rebuke seemed to get under Mr Tew's skin and he started to accuses the Councillors of "always meeting in secret" and then really "lost it" and accused Cllr Wales of being corrupt, When Cllr Wales objected to this accusation, Mr Tew widened his accusation to all the councillors present, shouting several times "you're all corrupt".

Well, Mr Tew, I wonder how long it will be before you hear the thud of solicitor's letters on your doormat?


Bringing the Council into Disrepute - Again!

It seems that Cllr Malcolm Calver has put his foot in it again.

At last Thursday's Council meeting two letters written by a lady in Jameston were read out. One was to the Chair of the Governors of Manorbier Primary School and the other was to the Monitoring Officer of Pembrokeshire County Council.

Both were complaining about Cllr Calver's behaviour in questioning her children about an alleged incidence of vandalism. The first incident took place while the children were playing in the street when Cllr Calver threaten the boys with the police. When one of the boys asked who he was he refused to identify himself and when the boy offered to fetch his parents Cllr Calver got back into his car and drove off. Unforntunately for Cllr Calver one of the other boys in the group recognised him.

To compound this unwise behaviour the letters go on to report the second, much more serious, incident which involved Cllr Calver going into the boy's class in Manorbier Primary School and questioning him without the permission of the head teacher and without the presence of his parents or a responsible adult. Now as I understand the law even the police are not allowed to question a minor without the presence of a responsible adult so what makes Cllr Calver think he can?

It was this intrusion into the school which most upset the boy's parents and in her letter to the Board of Governors the mother asked for a formal enquiry into the matter.

We understand that the Governors set up a Complaints Committee to consider the matter and that this committee has now looked into the facts and have upheld the mother's complaint. It is unclear what sanctions, if any, are available to the School Governors but one would have thought that the least Cllr Calver could do would be to resign as a governor.

The boy's mother has asked the Monitoring Officer to look into her complaint against Cllr Calver and has also made a formal complaint to the police.

We look forward with interest to any action which either may take.