Last week the Western Telegraph website carried councillors’ replies to its questions about the way they voted on the 29-23 majority for chief executive’s controversial severance package. The contributions of the 14 supporters (out of 29) who bothered to reply are interesting because, as extracts from some of their contributions (below) show, they seemed to be... Read More »
Pembrokeshire County Council has voted narrowly to give its chief executive a big pay-off. Whether that decision was correct is not a black and white question. Almost universally, the comments in the Western Telegraph of those who voted in favour compared the cost of the settlement with the cost of carrying on down the disciplinary... Read More »
As anticipated, the IPPG block vote, plus a trio of fellow travellers (Cllrs Alison Lee, David Lloyd and Stan Hudson), was enough to ensure that the chief executive got his £320,000 golden goodbye. At least Cllr Lee, the latest recruit from the Labour group, could fall back on collective Cabinet responsibility as an excuse. The Leader,... Read More »
Old Grumpy’s seismograph detects a political earthquake about to hit Pembrokeshire as the fault lines in the IPPG grind towards snapping point. So far, there have been some minor tremors such as the sacking/resignation of Cllr David Simpson – the only Cabinet member with even a shred of credibility – leaving a uniform bunch of... Read More »
On Wednesday, I tendered my resignation from the disciplinary committee which is charged with determining whether there is anything in the chief executive’s conduct that would warrant referring the matter to a “designated independent person” for further investigation. For very good reasons, this committee meets in secret, so you will understand why I have to be... Read More »
Monday’s extraordinary audit committee meeting; called to discuss the “irregular” grant payments in Pembroke Dock, was an interesting spectacle for an avid Kremlin watcher like Old Grumpy. When this committee first considered my concerns about this issue almost exactly one year ago, members were told: “4.3.1 Internal Audit has shared its findings with the Council’s... Read More »
Old Grumpy's online content dating back to 2000 is also archived on this newfangled website.
If you fancy a visit to Jurassic Park, you can exhume the old fossil’s philosophisings at...
