The mystery of GWR and the Lein Amlwch vote

Two weeks ago I noted how the proposal to change the preferred use of Lein Amlwch to a railway had been passed in a Full Council meeting with only one dissenting voice. I may think that Cllr Fflur Hughes was wrong to vote against the motion, but at least she had the courage of her convictions to stand her ground and clearly state her reasons.

What, therefore, are we to make of the fact that the councillor for Amlwch Rural -- a region likely to benefit greatly if Lein Amlwch was to re-open -- purposely left the council chamber before the vote? Gareth Winston Roberts claims that he is all for the reopening of the line but that he had other meetings to attend. Amlwch residents would be entitled to wonder what meetings are more important than the full council meetings he is paid to attend as their representative -- especially when such an important development to Amlwch's economic future is being debated?

It is also a fact that in addition to Gareth Winston Roberts, both of the other two members of his Anglesey Forward grouping also left the council chamber before the vote, namely Derlwyn Hughes (Moelfre) and William T Hughes (Llanbadrig). I have noted before that fully two out of the three Anglesey Forward councillors were returned unopposed at the last local elections, and that Anglesey Forward is now the only council grouping not to have responded in any way whatsoever to the People's Manifesto put together by commenters on this blog. It has become increasingly apparent to me that 'Anglesey Forward' has more of a whiff of thinking itself beyond democratic accountability.

The attempted Coup within the Coup

  

The original 'Terms of Agreement'

Eagle-eyed readers might recall that the Alliance 'Terms of Engagement' document I posted here last Saturday included a space for Cllr Gareth Winston Roberts, leader of the Môn Ymlaen (Anglesey Forward) group to sign. However, the official 'Terms of Engagement' document published by the Council earlier this week, does not. So what happened in between?

The official story seems to be that Gareth Winston Roberts declined to support the Alliance unless it included ALL the groups in the council. Indeed this is echoed in a rather pious quote in the Daily Post:

'Cllr Gareth Winston Roberts, leader of Môn Ymlaen, said: “We support the principle of the alliance but I feel they have missed a real opportunity to unite this council. They should have had all the groups on board to take this council forward.”'

However it has emerged that in reality Gareth Winston Roberts DID sign the original 'Terms of Engagement' document with the other leaders on Friday, 4th June. However, upon signing the document he immediately set about trying to undermine the new Alliance by contacting Bryan Owen - the new Leader of the rump Original Independents party - suggesting that they form a coalition whereby Gareth Winston Roberts would become the new Leader of the Council and Bryan Owen would become his Deputy. Apparently Bryan Owen refused to agree to any such arrangement and the bid came to nothing.

Obviously when the Alliance members learned of Gareth Winston Robert's machinations they ejected him and his faction, Môn Ymlaen, from the Alliance and signed a new 'Terms of Agreement' document on Tuesday, 8th June.