OUTGOING Powys Council leader Cllr James Gibson-Watt apologised to councillors for having to go through the process of electing his replacement.
At Powys County Council’s annual general meeting on Thursday, May 15 Liberal Democrat Cllr Gibson-Watt gave a farewell speech to councillors before they went on to elect his successor.
Cllr Gibson-Watt said: “It’s been an absolute privilege and thank you for entrusting me with this role.
“I apologise for landing the council in this situation where you’re having to elect a new leader three-fifths of the way through council.
“I can assure you I haven’t taken this decision lightly.
“But I do think it’s the best thing for council that this happens because I’m not confident that I can fulfil the role over the next couple of years as well as I would want to.”
“I have felt that pressure for the last few months.”
He told councillors that he was one of only two current councillors who had been elected in the first election of the new version of Powys County Council following the reorganisation of Welsh local authorities in 1995/1996.
Cllr Gibson-Watt said that had seen a “dramatic change” in the role of councillor and council over the last 30 years.
Cllr Gibson-Watt continued: “You need to understand the constraints that we have operate in, and you don’t really understand that until you become leader of the council.”
He explained the “obvious restrictions” are that the council wants to build more houses but there is the phosphates issue to contend with, and growing the Powys economy is constrained by the (electricity) grid.
Cllr Gibson-Watt said: “I would ask members to be sympathetic to the next leader as a lot of these constraints are unseen and are for regulatory purposes which is extraordinarily onerous, it eats up vast amounts of officer and member time and is very expensive.
“It constrains the degree which to which a local authority and administration of any colour can make its own sovereign decisions.”
“Local government in Wales is a delivery arm of the Welsh Government.
“Frustrating as it is that is just the reality of life.”
He added that he believed local authorities in Wales had a better relationship with the Welsh Government than their counterparts in England have with the UK Government where there are some “acute tensions.”
But Cllr Gibson-Watt is not completely stepping away from the top table yet.
Later in the meeting when his successor and new council leader Cllr Jake Berriman (Liberal Democrat) was unveiling his new look cabinet it was revealed that Cllr Gibson-Watt has been entrusted with pushing on with the “initial engagement phase” of reorganising post-16 education in Powys.
This is part of the cabinet brief for a more prosperous Powys which he will carry out until the end of September while mentoring Cllr Glyn Preston (Liberal Democrat) to eventually take on that role.
