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Yet another meeting that I have been unlawfully excluded from because I refused to sign an unlawful undertaking. Oh the irony of reading in the Carmarthen Journal that the Council had stopped asking people to sign the undertaking almost made me utter a Victor Meldrew catch phrase.

Another irony that on the front door of the Council is a sign saying that there are CCTV cameras in the building recording our every move, funny that it is such a contentious thing to film inside the Council Chamber.

Yet more stupidly they have a notice that under fire regulations visitors have to sign in and then be locked in an area that does not allow emergency egress without phoning through to be escorted out of the building

On that same page is a story about the Council leader's ill advised impromptu speech criticising protesters and council workers,  she says that the footage has been edited to suit their own agenda, well if these things were recorded properly then we could all see what she said, context and all ;-)

Shame on you Carmarthenshire (even more)

I live in a beautiful place that is blighted by a council that does not and will not listen, you will of course know about their public access ban*
Somebody pointed out on Caebrwyn's blog that public access is guaranteed by the Public Bodies(Admission to Meetings) Act 1960; so I wrote to Linda Rees-Jones:

"I had assumed that as one of the council's law officers that you are obliged to conform to the various Local Government Acts but you appear to be overlooking the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 which clearly states the public right of admission and, unless you have persuaded the Government to draft new laws especially for you, I expect to find the door to the public gallery to be open for the public entry and egress for all meetings from now on.

Yours faithfully"

 She wrote back almost immediately:

"The 1960 Act does not apply to County Councils; rather, admission to meetings of County Councils is governed by the Local Government Act

1972.

Yours faithfully,"

I have written to her Again:

"Dear Ms Rees-Jones

Annotations C1 of the Public Bodies Act 1960 specifically mentions "non-metropolitan counties and districts constituted by LGA 1972" which makes me think that it does cover your public meetings, I shall still expect to be able to enter the public gallery without hindrance.

yours faithfully"

I'm not sure that she can have looked at both acts and worked out that they are linked. I await, with baited breath, to hear her rebuttal ;-)

*doh! since starting to write this blog Caebrwyn posted that the undertaking has now been rescinded

Shame on you Carmarthenshire (ongoing saga)

As anybody reading this will know CarmCC have refused to let me into their public meetings unless I sign an undertaking not to film or record the proceedings; there is no lawful way for them to do this, however their Acting Head of Administration and Law has sent me some waffle by post and when I said that was not good enough she then emailed me the following:

 Dear Mr. Bain,

Thank you for your e-mail.

I consider the introduction of the requirement for members of the public wishing to access the public gallery to first sign an undertaking to be a lawful one, yes. In an ideal world such an undertaking would not be required, but in light of disruption to previous meetings it was considered necessary to introduce some sort of process to avoid future disruption and ensure the smooth running of meetings. You will not find mention of it in the Constitution or Standing Orders because, as I said in my letter of the 5th December, it was a decision taken by officers.

There has never, to my knowledge, been an issue with the press. 

As I have previously told you the whole issue of whether meetings should be filmed is being considered by a Task and Finish Group so the requirement for an undertaking to be signed may change.

Yours faithfully,

Linda Rees-Jones
Acting Head of Administration & Law
And Monitoring Officer

It is interesting that she makes no mention of consulting the people who are nominally in charge of the Council!

Pet Hates

I don't know if you know but I do have a streak of Victor Meldrew concerning things on the interwebs

#1 the forward leaning stroke on a keyboard is called oblique not "slash" or "forward slash"

#2 sites that take longer than an eye-blink to load

#3 Flashplayer and all his siblings

ps I don't like to be contradicted either, but that is a whole other story ;-)

pps can I remind you of  Movember

Shame on you Carmarthenshire

With reference to my last post I think that Carmarthenshire have had their chance to explain their position vis'a'vis excluding members of the public from their meetings. If the Chris Burns "assistant Chief Executive" and the Colin Davies "Democratic Services Manager" think that "rules is rules" is an adequate response then their grasp of reality is, at best, tenuous! Only following orders is never a reasonable defence.

I have written to all the AMs for this area and to our MP; still waiting to hear more than a postcard from Simon Hart but Angela Burns has written to me twice. The second letter enclosing a copy of the letter she got from Mark James although there seems to be neither a signature or even a typed name, funnily enough it is exactly the same letter as the acting head of the legal department sent to the Carmarthen Journal a couple of weeks ago, the only difference was that she signed her name!

I always thought that the councillors had to make the decisions about what went on in the council especially when it comes to excluding legitimate scrutiny of the council. I would like to know which Local Government Act gives officers the right to exclude me regardless of their undertaking about not filming, I have been reading through LGA1972 and all the subsequent acts until my head spins.

I sent a complaint to Carl Sargeant AM, Minister for Local Government and Communities on Sept 14th and received the reply below:

"Dick Bain dick@towy71.*******

5th October 2011

Dear Mr Bain

Public Access to Council Meetings

Thank you for your e-mail of 16th September to Carl Sargeant AM, Minister for Local Government and Communities. I am replying on his behalf.

Local authorities are obliged to allow the public entry to council meetings, unless the issues being discussed are considered to be exempt (in the main, confidential or commercial matters).

The process that a local authority follows to allow the public access to meetings is a matter for them, as they have to take into account the need for security in modern society.

I understand, however, that Carmarthenshire Council are due to vote shortly on public broadcasting of council meetings.

Yours sincerely *** *******

Scrutiny, Democracy & Participation Team"

It has got to the point were I feel there is nowhere to go; so I have now lodged an appeal to the Local Government Ombudsman.

Orwellian stuff

I just tried to get in to watch Carmarthenshire County Councillors at work but was refused entry by Mr. Colin Davies "Democratic Services Manager" who could cite no rule from the Council's constitution or standing orders.

The reason that I was refused entry was because I would not sign an undertaking "not record or film any meetings of the Council or its committees from the public gallery of the Council Chamber at County Hall, Carmarthen until and unless the policy relating to this is reviewed by the Council." The address at the top of the bit of paper states that it is "To: Chief Executive." One wonders about the story of the tail wagging the dog ;-)

I asked for my Councillor to come and explain why this was, as I had asked him on the 14th Sept to find out. He came very quickly and said he had asked for clarification but that legal services had not got back to him and that the meeting was about to start and he couldn't stay. I will copy the email, of which I sent copies to Simon Hart MP, Angela Burns AM and Carl Sargeant AM, at the bottom of the page. I redacted my email address but left Daff's because it is published on the county council website

I was very happy to meet up with Caebrwyn and Y Cneifiwr at last, who both did sign and go in. I also met Chris Segar of The Ferret being ignored by the council too!

Subject: turned away from county council meeting
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:13:18 +0100

From: Dick Bain <dick@towy71.blanketyblank.com>
To: Cllr D B Davies <DBDavies@carmarthenshire.gov.uk>


Daff

This morning I tried to get to see my county council in action but was
refused entry until I had signed some piece of paper which I refused
to do. I asked under what rule they were restricting my access to the
public gallery but they could not or would not answer; however they
said someone would come down and explain to me why I had to sign this
undertaking.

Chris Burns identified himself as deputy chief executive, he told me
that council rules dictated that I sign the form but he could not or
would not specify which rule, under the constitution or standing
orders, restricted access to the public gallery.

Can you clarify under what rules I was turned away?

thanks

Dick Bain

The joys of IRC

I'm normally logged in to an IRC channel 24/7 and there is very little traffic but there are the occasional gems

mawi; evening

towy71; shhshhh don't wake the bears

mawi; Wah? bears?

* mawi hides

towy71; it's worse when they get close, bad breath ;-)

mawi; and itchy fur

towy71; oops how did you know that? are you a bear?

mawi; why, yes, yes I am

mawit; Grrr

* towy71 hides