Can county councillors be recalled? (updated)

A Bodffordd resident has written in to ask whether it is possible to 'recall' county councillors -- i.e. have them removed prior to scheduled local elections. Apparently at last night's public meeting to discuss the village's continued resistance to the infamous biodigester, several attendees started calling for the county councillor for the ward of Bodffordd, Plaid Cymru's William I. Hughes, to be somehow deselected. Residents feel that Cllr Hughes, who did not attend last night's meeting -- or indeed any of the public meetings held in his ward to counter the biodigester -- is no longer acting as their representative and they do not want to have to wait two more years until the next local elections to get rid of him. They are also irritated that he lives in Trefor -- some distance from both Bodffordd and its future biodigester.

The ability for local residents to be able to recall non-performing county councillors strikes me as just the sort of measure which could help focus the minds of some of Anglesey's more intransigent councillors. Unfortunately according to my reading of the Anglesey County Council's constitution there is no way local residents can force such a recall. Or is there? Perhaps some of my learned readers could let me know whether there is another way of achieving the same aim?

Also, if you're reading this Prof. Closs Stephens (and I've heard you are an occasional reader), please let me urge you to use your current power as chair of the recovery board to have the constitution amended so as to include a recall clause -- and in so doing improve the chances of a sustainable recovery once the board has decamped.
In the meantime, I'll be adding a recall mechanism clause to our People's Manifesto for Ynys Môn.

UPDATE: There seems to be some confusion regarding what a recall actually is. It does not allow a small number of dissatisfied people to remove a democratically elected representative -- it merely allows for a by-election to be forced if a sufficient percentage of local residents sign a petition. The incumbent is then freely able to campaign for his or her re-election. As such a recall should be seen as a measure which ensures that democratically-elected politicians are kept on their toes. For those who say a recall is somehow undemocratic, let me remind you that a recall mechanism was included in Aristotle's Constitution of Athens.

"The pong is awful"

John Craven at the Ludlow biodigester

Those are the words used on yesterday's edition of the BBC's 'Country Tracks' by veteran presenter John Craven to describe the stench made by the methane biodigester plant in Ludlow -- the model for the planned biodigester to be built in Bodffordd. In fact Ecoparc Môn, the company pushing the plans, organised a trip for councillors and some residents to see the very same Ludlow biodigester back in 2009 in order to allay their fears about smells -- and now John Craven has confirmed what was long been suspected by Bodffordd villagers: that such a plant will produce an 'awful pong'.

Proponents of biodigesters have always been at pains to point out that the anaerobic digesters themselves do not produce any smells as they are completely sealed -- however this appears to be a red herring. As was made amply clear from yesterday's 'Country Tracks' programme (view it here, forward to around 20m15s) it is the 'staging area' where the food waste is delivered and shredded before being fed into the biodigesters which actually produces the smells.

As the council has granted planning permission and the campaigners against it have been refused a judicial review, there seems little more that Bodffordd villagers can do to prevent the scheme going ahead. That notwithstanding there will be a public meeting this evening from 7.30pm at the Bodffordd Community Centre, which is part of the primary school building. All interested parties are asked to attend.

The issue at stake here is not that people are opposed to the concept of turning food waste into energy; people are opposed to the frankly stupid decision to site the plant at Mona Industrial Estate, where prevailing winds will blow odours over the nearby village of Bodffordd. It would have made far more sense to locate the plant next to either an existing council tip, next to the abattoir in Gaerwen (where the proponents of the scheme plan to acquire most of the food waste anyway) or on the edge of the island where the smells could be safely left to waft over towards Ireland. As Anglesey County Council struggles to regain the trust of residents, it is foolish decisions like these which will continue to prove that the council is not being run in the best interests of Islanders.

Making a success of the Energy Island concept

Underwater turbines

There was some good news for Anglesey's Energy Island project earlier this week when developers unveiled a £70m project to generate electricity with seven underwater turbines between the Skerries and Carmel Head. The advantages of underwater turbines is that unlike wind turbines  they are constantly generating power due to the movement of tide, and that they have only a small visual footprint. A two day exhibition was held earlier this week at Holyhead Town Hall, and the project will apparently be submitted for offshore planning approval to the Welsh Assembly Government next month. If all goes well, commissioning could begin as early as 2013-14.

Personally I believe that the Energy Island concept to be exceptionally promising. It combines great ambition with an understanding of Anglesey's unique resources. I'm sure there are many councils up and down the country which would love to have a similarly coherent economic development strategy. However, I do also have some reservations:

• Energy projects, whether they be nuclear, tidal or otherwise, can only be realised by very large firms. Accordingly the council's Economic Development unit, in its enthusiasm for grand schemes, must take exceptional care to not inadvertently neglect nurturing and promoting the Island's indigenous small businesses -- of all kinds, energy-related or not. Following the loss of Anglesey Aluminium, we know the ill effects of putting too many eggs into one basket.
• For the Energy Island concept to be a full success Anglesey must become an originator of energy technology -- not just a destination for off-island companies to place various schemes (the marine turbines we discussed above are a good example of this as MCT's R&D centre is actually based in Bristol). Accordingly the council must work to incubate Anglesey-based energy start-ups. The only way to do this would be to work with local research centres, such as Bangor University, to develop some kind of Energy Science Park located, for example, next to Wylfa. I would further suggest that using the "Shell Fund" to provide "seed money" for such start ups would be a far more productive use of the money then purely funnelling the majority of it into Oriel Môn each year.
• Finally the council must not approve all energy-related projects willy-nilly. The decision to site a biodigester in Bodffordd is a good example of the council falling over itself to be seen to furthering the Energy Island agenda without properly considering whether Bodffordd really was the most suitable location for that particular development.

"The soap opera across the Menai Straits"

Last night's edition of BBC Radio Wales's "Eye on Wales" was devoted to looking at the problems facing Anglesey County Council one year on from the damning Wales Audit Office report - or the "soap opera across the Menai Straits" as they called it.

As per all programmes about Ynys Môn it includes the obligatory pseudo-Celtic, mystic-sounding music and comments about "voices from the past", etc. However, beyond the cliches, it also included some interesting information. For example the fact that the combined cost to the Anglesey council tax and business rates payer for the "recovery" (including David Bowles salary, the costs of the recovery board, etc.) is running at around £1 million a year... a staggering sum.

Steve Thomas, Chief Executive of the Wales Local Government Association, described what sets council politics in Anglesey apart from that in the rest of Wales:

"Whats unique about it is the visceral nature of it in Anglesey. While there are people in councils throughout Wales who undertake vigourous debate, it doesn't quite degenerate into the level of personality politics that occurs on Anglesey. So the result of that is that is not unique but the depth and level of the politics up there does have a special character."

Prof. Elan Closs Stephens, chairperson of the WAG appointed Anglesey Recovery Board, made it fairly clear that she wants to avoid having the council run by Commissioners from Cardiff:

"My view, and that of the Board, is that we haven't reached the commissioner stage. I think there is still a lot of good will, still a desire to get things resolved. Commissioner stages are very difficult stage for councils because what you are doing is stripping away not only the councillors from from their democratic elected rights, but your actually stripping the Island & the people of the Island from being democratically represented and thats a very serious thing. I wouldn't wish to go there if possible."

The strangest part of the programme, however, was quite a long section on the Bodffordd Biodigester controversy.  Bizarrely the BBC cites the Council's steadfast refusal to engage with huge local opposition regarding the plans to site a Methane Biodigester at Bodffordd as an example of the quality of the Council's services. Yes, you read that right: the fact that the council "didn't cut and run", as the BBC man put it, in the face of the local campaign against the plant apparently proves that the Council provides good services. Huh? Personally the Druid views the Council's decision to approve the siting of a Biodigester in Bodffordd as a prime example of the Council completely getting it wrong.

Anyway, you can listen to the whole programme on iPlayer here.

Plaid Cymru get themselves into a Biomess

     

Schematic diagram showing how the Bodffordd Biodigester works

As per yesterdays' post Peter Rogers hospitalisation has potentially put the general election result within reach of all three main parties. In the electoral simulations the Druid made based on the January YouGov Wales poll, Labour and Plaid have less than 100 votes between them with the Conservatives trailing just 1000 votes behind. And in a scenario where every single vote counts it looks like Plaid Cymru have made a massive miscalculation in Bodffordd which has the potential to cost them the election.

Anglesey residents will probably be aware that trouble has been brewing in Bodffordd for some time about plans to site a 25,000 tonne Biodigester in nearby Mona Industrial Park. A biodigester basically creates electricity from organic waste such as out-of-date food or meat by-products through allowing bacteria to digest it in an oxygen-free environment thus producing methane-rich biogas which is then converted to heat or electricity. As you might imagine it is a pretty smelly process and residents of Bodffordd are concerned that they could be stunk out of their own homes when the prevailing wind is blowing. Two public meetings were held to discuss ways of stopping the plant and the community council also objected to its building. In the end however Anglesey County Council approved the project on December 14th despite receiving a petition against with 479 signatures from residents.

So what has all this got to do with Plaid Cymru? Well, the County Councillor for Bodffordd is Plaid Cymru's William Hughes and it appears that he managed to alienate his residents by failing to turn up for any of the public meetings about the biodigester. Furthermore, to add insult to injury, it turns out that now that the plant has been approved both Cllr William Hughes and Plaid PPC Dylan Rees have suddenly made overtures to help Bodffordd. Too little, too late say residents.

At the last council elections there were 793 electors in the Bodffordd ward and we know that 479 people signed the petition - its probably fair to assume that a majority of these voted Plaid Cymru in the council elections but now won't be doing so in the General Election. And as there could potentially only be 100 votes between Labour and Plaid, has the Bodffordd Biodigester lost the election for Plaid Cymru?

As a side note, the campaign against the biodigester has been lead by former County Councillor John Arthur Jones. He lost his Cyngar (Llangefni) seat by 200 votes to Plaid Cymru in 2008 - no doubt he will be standing in Bodffordd against William Hughes at the next council elections.