OPPOSITION councillors in Merthyr Tydfil have raised concerns about how the council handles minutes and broadcasts of meetings after 26 minutes of a recent meeting were omitted from the original recording.
At full council on Wednesday April 2, Councillor Andrew Barry, of the Independent group, said that when the electronic version of the full council meeting on March 5 was first released 26 minutes of the recording was edited out.
He said under the Local Government and Elections Act any omissions should have an accompanying omissions report but that he was not aware of any omissions report and asked if the executive had approved the omissions.
A council officer responded saying it was an administration error and that the full correct minutes are up on the website now and the full recording is up.
Carys Kennedy, the council’s head of legal and monitoring officer, said they’d need to apologise for the administrative error to all members and the public if that appeared to have been an omission.
Cllr Barry said it was a record of a public meeting and should never be touched, adding: “We’re not happy with that.”
Cllr Geraint Thomas, leader of the Independent group, said the broadcast had been edited removing detail of the debate on the contested ability of the administration to include an inflation-busting rise to directors’ pay with the associated recorded vote as well as the recorded vote on the actual budget paper itself.
He said 26 minutes of the original recording was removed between Friday, March 7, and Monday, March 10.
Cllr Thomas said: “The editing and availability of this representation contravenes the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 and the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.”
He also said it was the opinion of the Independent group that it also contravened section 21 paragraph eight of the constitution.
He went on to mention the planning meeting on Wednesday, March 12, and said it has now been three weeks since what Cllr Clive Jones referred to as the biggest application in over 20 years was determined.
Cllr Thomas said they’ve recently received the written minutes of the meeting but no broadcast has been published which he said contravenes chapter four of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021.
He said he believed neither the mayor as chair of the council meeting of March 5, himself as leader of the Independent group, his Independent group members, or the council tax payers of Merthyr Tydfil have formally been notified of these omissions.
He said they’d be sending a document to the ombudsman and auditor general on these issues for a full independent investigation into the “above transgressions”.
“These issues are of such a serious nature we will leave the responsibility of legal proceedings with these public bodies.
“We have little confidence in the administration and leadership of the council with regard to the validity of the broadcast of public meetings as per Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021.”
He said they’d only vote on minutes of meetings that their Independent members were participating in and would not take responsibility for the detail of meetings and minutes they played no part in.
He said for clairty that the Independent group does not include councillors Jeremy Davies, Kevin Gibbs, Paula Layton, Declan Sammon, and Jamie Scriven.
Cllr Thomas said that the Independent group would be voting against the minutes as they were proposed.
He said: “The public’s confidence can only be restored by an open and transparent investigation into how this authority treats minutes and broadcasts of public meetings.”
