THE COUNCIL’s leader Jamie Adams has denied putting pressure on Cllr Alison Lee to join the Council’s ruling group. Cllr Jacob Williams asked: “In response to my question at last year’s (2014) October full Council meeting the Leader said he was happy for former Labour Councillor Alison Lee to serve in his Cabinet as an unaffiliated Member, that he was committed to maintaining cross-party relations, and placed “on record” that he would put “no pressure” on Cllr. Lee to join his ruling group, the IPPG.
“Despite previously telling the media she wouldn’t, Cllr. Lee recently joined the leader’s IPPG days after Cllr. Pearl Llewellyn’s resignation cost the group its majority. “Does the Leader remain indifferent to his Cabinet Members’ political affiliations like he put on record last year, or did the disastrous consequences of losing his group’s majority cause him to have a rethink?” The question was put to the leader at Thursday’s, December 10, meeting of full Council. Following Cllr Pearly Llewellyn’s resignation from the IPPG, the ruling group had lost its majority within the council. Cllr Lee joined the group days later despite earlier comments that she would not. At the meeting, it was also revealed that Cllr Owen James (Scleddau) had also joined the IPPG.
Council Leader Jamie Adams said: “Councillor Lee’s membership of the Independent Plus Group is a matter for her, my position remains unchanged.” Cllr Jacob Williams responded: “The announcement of Cllr Lee’s promotion to the Cabinet was sent out in a press release on October 13 but in there it says Cllr Adams says he ‘looks forward to working constructively with a member of the opposition in Cabinet’, he went on “As a labour councillor, Alison has shown great commitment to her council ward and her constituents, she also recognises that to operate effectively in Cabinet one must put political considerations to one side and consider the wider picture and the greater benefit of the people of Pembrokeshire.
“I hope that council members and the public will recognise the appointment as a sign of my determination to ensure that a cross section of voices and opinions are heard in Cabinet. “Following that the Pembrokeshire Herald interviewed Cllr Lee in its October 24 edition, Cllr Lee is quoted ‘I will not be joining the Independent Group, Jamie Adams made it very clear that it was not a problem and I will be sitting in the Cabinet as an unaffiliated member of the council’.
“So we couldn’t wish for clearer evidence that the leader, at one point in time, had no problem with having an unaffiliated member on the Cabinet so something’s changed there. “Could the Leader look into the camera lens and promise, in all honesty, that after Cllr Llewellyn resigned from the IPPG, removing its majority, he made no attempt, either himself or through anybody else, to persuade Cllr Lee to join his ruling group or to explain that her position in the Cabinet would be in jeopardy if she remained an unaffiliated member. “Will the Leader look into the camera lens and make the solemn pledge he didn’t do that?” The leader responded: “My position on the political affiliation of any member of my Cabinet has not changed, I reiterate that response.”
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