Plaid Cymru Councillors in Carmarthenshire have criticised the Labour/Independent administration for playing games with the council's constitution. At the Council’s meeting on March 6th, Plaid asked for a survey of parental demand for Welsh medium education to be conducted before carrying out any re-organisation. In response the ruling groups brought forward an alternative proposal that deleted the whole of Plaid’s motion and replaced it by an unrelated new motion masquerading as an amendment, that does not even mention the key issue of the original Motion, namely a parental survey.
Cllr Gwyn Hopkins strongly attacked the Council's handling of the issue. "If they didn't like our motion, all they had to do was to vote against it," he said. "The Independent/Labour coalition have a majority which means that they can always vote down anything we in Plaid propose. They always do. But to propose an entirely different motion and call it an amendment is contrary to any normal procedure for debate, and certainly contrary to the spirit of the council's constitution. This is just playing silly games with the council's rule book."
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This means that there is no effective opposition, surely in this case the labour/independants are acting out of sheer bloody mindedness, are they not able to break ranks or even reasonably debate an issue as important as this, the structure of, and power of ruling administration at the council is not what many in Carmarthenshire voted for in May 2008.
It is clear to any observer of the council that the 'independent' group is the most tightly whipped of all the groups. No dissent is expressed on any issue. Of all three groups, they are, in that sense, the most 'political' of all - completely contrary to the impression which they try to convey.
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