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.

North Wales Police Authority: no response (updated)

Actually we do: 45% were in favour and 41% opposed

Just over a month ago I wrote about the North Wales Police Authority's shameful misrepresentation of the results of an statistically invalid internet survey which they conducted together with the South Wales Police Authority to supposedly gauge the Welsh public's opinion on elected police commissioners. Despite only 884 people taking part (and only 82 of them coming from North Wales) the NWPA then released their interim findings to the Daily Post, stating categorically that residents of North Wales didn't want a elected police commissioner -- except that they actually did, with 45 percent either in favour or somewhat in favour, compared to 41 percent who were against. In so doing the NWPA were clearly guilty of wilfully misrepresenting the results of a sham public consultation in order to oppose the new policy and protect both the status quo and their own sinecures.

In response a regular commenter to this blog then contacted both the NWPA and SWPA by letter asking them to comment on why they had released the results of a survey which breaks so many elements of good practise on polling, namely:

"(1) The sample is not representative of the population because it is self-selecting. In other words, only those who feel they have an opinion on the topic will trouble themselves to respond. There is some background information gathered about respondents, but this is not complete, and crucially lacks information on socio-economic background. There is therefore no robust means of correcting for the sample that you do gather.

(2) The poll asks for the respondents' sex, but the responses are not broken down by sex. In contrast, and perhaps in a nod to political correctness, the fraction of 'ethnic minority' backgrounds is quoted (but not how they 'vote' on the poll).

(3) The response rate per head of population is exceptionally low; Anglesey (population ca. 70,000), has only 7 respondents - 1 in 10,000. Even as a total, 884 responses is well below the accepted minimum representative (which it anyway is not) poll size of about 1000 respondents.

(4) You do not provide the margin of error (the confidence intervals) for the poll. If it were quoted, the confidence in the results would appear to be low.

(5) There may be bias in the questions asked, and so stray into a 'push-poll'. It is not clear who drew up the poll, but it is clear why it is was drawn. From the general content of the report so far, there seems to be a bias against the concept of elected commissioners within the NWPA."

The response almost one month later?

NWPA: no acknowledgement, no response.
SWPA: acknowledgement received, no further response.

So there you are: you can choose between (a) a number of unelected appointees/quangocrats who clearly do not feel they have to respond to reasonable questions from members of the general public; or (b) an elected commissioner who will be held directly accountable to residents for police priorities and performance. I know which option I would choose.

On a side note, the acknowledgement from the SWPA said that the letter would be passed on to the Chief Constable -- which begs the question of just how independent the Police Authorities really are. Why would the chief constable of South Wales need to be informed about a complaint regarding the methodology of an internet poll carried out by a body supposedly at arms length from the Police?

"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.

Meet Ed Miliband's 'New Generation' for Wales...

...they're the same as the Old Generation:

Peter Hain, despite not being voted for by his colleagues, returns as Shadow Secretary of State for Rwanda Wales. Neil Kinnock obviously wasn't speaking metaphorically when he said he's got his party back...

Carwyn Jones and Alex Salmond choose the easy path

The first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have issued a joint statement attacking the UK government's spending plans. The following is the important part of their joint declaration:

"The proposals to cut public spending to such an extent run the risk of stalling any recovery.

Private sector demand remains fragile and access to finance continues to be constrained.

The current plans for fiscal consolidation could therefore have a significant and lasting negative impact on the economy, including people's jobs, which would undermine the very efforts to address the UK's fiscal position.

We believe that promoting economic growth is the best way to restore the health of our public finances and this must be our overriding priority."

Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, has been spearheading today's announcement and has taken every opportunity to lampoon the coalition's spending plans on TV and radio news programmes. I would remind him of two things:

• Firstly, according to the Holtham Report, whereas Wales is underfunded by the Treasury to the tune of £300m a year compared to an equivalent English Region, Scotland by the same calculations is currently overfunded by a whopping £4.2bn per year. This means that as we move into the belt tightening phase, Scotland starts from a better supported position than any other region in the UK.
• Secondly, if Alex Salmond thinks that the coalition's programme to reduce spending is too severe he has recourse to a very simple means of offsetting the effects of those the cuts in Scotland: he can use the tax-varying powers granted to the Scottish Parliament to increase income tax in Scotland by up to 3p in the pound in order to fund a reduced pace of cuts. Unfortunately Mr Salmond doesn't have the balls to unilaterally adjust income tax in Scotland as he knows the Scottish electorate wouldn't tolerate it -- therefore he's content to demand that the elected Westminster government (which is already overfunding Scotland by £4.2bn) should abandon their much telegraphed plans and instead raise taxes throughout the UK so as to protect the Scottish public services which Mr Salmond himself is too politically cowardly to take action to protect.

Of course unlike Scotland, the Welsh Assembly has no such tax varying powers and therefore Welsh first minster, Carwyn Jones, is able to make the same argument as Mr Salmond safe in the knowledge that he is not in anyway accountable to the people of Wales for the amount of tax they pay. However he is responsible for how efficiently that public money is spent -- and if WAG was a paragon of efficiency and cost-effectiveness I would have great sympathy with Carwyn's position. However we know that public money in Wales has not been well spent and the recent problems highlighted by the leaked McKinsey report into the running of the Welsh NHS are a case in point, as was the decision to maintain for ten years the £50K+ salaries of hundreds of NHS executives who were found to be surplus to requirements following the last Welsh NHS reorganisation. Therefore, although I fully support any calls for the Barnett Formula to be amended as per the Holtham recommendations, I would argue that the first task of the Welsh Assembly Government is to prove that it can manage public money more efficiently before taking the easy option of simply blaming the coalition government's spending plans.

On a related note, I have argued previously (here and here) that the Welsh Assembly should have tax varying powers in order to, amongst other reasons, make our Welsh politicians more accountable to the Welsh electorate. However as per the example set by the Scotland Parliament, which has had such tax varying powers since it was formed but has chosen never to utilise them, I suspect that a Labour/Plaid Cymru-controlled WAG also would probably just take the politically cowardly route of not using them either. The fact is if you continue to do the same old things, you will continue to get the same old results -- its time for some new and radical thinking in Wales if we are to radically improve our economic situation.

Protecting Anglesey's 'Môn Mam Cymru' status

© Sir Kyffin Williams, R.A. (1918-2006)

Tucked away in the 'Farm & Country' section of today's Daily Post is a very significant report about a plan to renovate Anglesey Country Council's tenant farms. It is a little known fact that Anglesey Council owns the second largest smallholdings estate in Wales, however the sad fact is that many of these farms have over time become considerably dilapidated. With little or no money set aside to repair them, rents well below the market average, and an attitude that they are sacrosanct and should not be sold, these smallholdings have over time crumbled into even worse states of disrepair -- in fact, according to the Daily Post, only a very small portion even have central heating.

It is refreshing therefore to discover that at a meeting of the Executive this week, the decision was finally made to take action and sell a small portion of these smallholdings, and parcels of bare land, in order to fund much needed estate management, such as repairs and modernisation for the remaining smallholdings over the next five years. Furthermore, going beyond just improving the quality of the estate, plans have also been put in place to create a clear succession framework to ensure that the modernised smallholdings are then available to help young farmers (with Agricultural College backgrounds) get a 'step-up' into the farming business.

This decision by the Council is entirely to be welcomed -- and in fact exactly such a policy was advocated in the People's Manifesto for Ynys Môn:

- Anglesey County Council’s tenant farms are a valuable public asset and provide an opportunity for much needed younger farmers to learn the ropes and become independent with minimal capital outlay. However, many of the council's tenant farms are currently in poor states of disrepair. Resources allowing, the council should endeavour to renovate them so that they will continue to serve the island.

- In order to generate money to renovate the majority of the council’s tenant farms, it may be necessary to value and sell off a small proportion of such to tenant farmers, or even offer part ownerships of smallholdings.

Therefore all credit to the new portfolio holder for Property, Smallholdings and Asset Management, Cllr H. Eifion Jones, for having the foresight to grasp this particular nettle and also for managing to build cross-party support within the council for this intervention. Some other councils with similarly large numbers of smallholdings, such as Somerset, have decided to sell their entire estates -- however, considering agriculture is so important to both Anglesey's past ("Môn Mam Cymru") and it's future, the Druid completely supports the plans to create, in Cllr Eifion Jones's words, "a vibrant smallholdings estate which will help young farmers enter the agricultural industry".

Readers might also be interested to learn that Prof. Elan Closs Stephens, chair of the Recovery Board, has taken to strolling through the council building and sitting in on various meetings. This week she decided to attend the above meeting and declared herself delighted with both the proactive policy itself and the constructive nature of the meeting.

Could this be a sign that the Council is beginning to consider the challenges it faces in a mature manner and is trying to turn itself around?

Labour's Ynys Môn Assembly candidate woes

With just seven months to go until next May's Welsh Assembly elections, the Druid has been hearing a lot of rumours from the Labour camp that they are seriously struggling to find a good candidate for Ynys Môn. Three potentials with strong links to Anglesey have already ruled themselves out -- obviously not wishing to expend either their energy or political capital fighting Ieuan Wyn Jones; And who can blame them when you consider that Labour were beaten into a poor third place at the last elections in 2007, trailing IWJ by 6,000 votes. Furthermore, in a clear indication of how us Islanders vote in very different ways at different elections -- and how important personalities are above party affiliations -- Labour have seen their share of the vote on the Island decline at each Assembly election since 1999, in direct contrast to their Westminster election results here.

In conclusion -- in a knock to their chances at next year's Assembly elections -- its looking increasingly likely that Labour on Ynys Môn will have to look 'over the bridge' and draft up a candidate from Cardiff or even further afield.