++ Ieuan Wyn Jones eagerly "reluctantly" supports postponement of Ynys Môn local elections ++

As was obvious following his side-stepping of the issue last month, Ynys Môn AM Ieuan Wyn Jones has today written to Welsh Local Government Minister Carl Sargeant to say he "eagerly reluctantly" supports the postponement of Anglesey's local elections to 2013. By throwing his support behind Labour in the Senedd, this means that Ynys Môn residents will almost certainly be denied the opportunity to vote in local elections this May with the rest of Wales. Both the Welsh Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have joined forces to oppose any postponement — with Plaid Cymru's support Labour would not have been able to force a postponement.

This means that if you...

• object to the performance of your local county councillor
• object to Ynys Môn setting a 5% council tax rise (most likely the largest council tax hike in Wales and big enough to trigger a local referendum in England)
• object to not having a say in where the £4.3 million savings Ynys Môn has to find in local services fall
• object to Anglesey council's plans to introduce monthly bin collections
• object to the huge increase in applications to erect industrial-size Wind Turbines all over the Island
• object to other flawed faux-"renewable" schemes like the Peboc Biomass plant which will import wood all the way from Nova Scotia to burn in Llangefni (apparently to "cut" carbon emissions!)
• simply want to exercise your democratic right to vote at the same time as everyone else in Wales

...then thanks to Ieuan Wyn Jones you will no longer have the opportunity to have your voice heard at the Ballot box until 2013. By which time it will be too late.

It is also worth noting that in supporting the postponement of Ynys Môn's local elections, Ieuan Wyn Jones is going against:

• His own Plaid Cymru councillors on Ynys Môn council, who, out of principle, have explicitly opposed the postponement
• The former Plaid Cymru National Chair, John Dixon, who has said that the new electoral system on Ynys Môn is tantamount to "rigging the system"
• Every single town and community council on Ynys Môn, apart from Labour-controlled Holyhead Town council
• The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), including its Plaid Cymru members
• All Independent councillors on Ynys Môn council
• At least two of the five Labour councillors on Ynys Môn council
• The Welsh Conservative Party
• The Welsh Liberal Democrats

So why is Ieuan Wyn Jones supporting it? Because...

(a) he knows Plaid Cymru will probably gain the most new councillors through the new exclusively multi-member ward system being proposed for Ynys Môn; and 

(b) because he also knows the reduction down to 30 councillors will make Ynys Môn Council non-functional and is a precursor to rolling it up into a "Greater" Gwynedd council — thus creating a permanently Plaid Cymru controlled mega-council.

Mr Wyn Jones has in my view put narrow party political interests ahead of the interests of the people he represents.