The council co-opted a vacancy today to a person who lives in Eglwysbach, rather than a resident of our village!
I am very annoyed. Only two people have asked the voters of Glan Conwy to support their membership of the community council in the past 30 years! Me and Dan.
Dan won fair and square in the August poll, but I had more votes than any other member of the community council has ever gained! It is a travesty that the support that I gained in an open election should be overridden by internal favouritism.
I will stand for election again next May, on my record of community service, which I hope the people of Glan Conwy will respect! I can guarantee that I will beat some of the nodding donkies who are, with all respect, an embarrassment to Glan Conwy Council!
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ReplyDeleteUnfortunately anon I can't afford the legal fees, to allow libellous comments about individual councillors to be published.
ReplyDeleteWho has been co opted?
ReplyDeleteDrew Pritchard, who lives in Eglwysbach but has a right to be a Glan Conwy Councillor because he owns business interests in the community, which I understand to be Jackson's Nursery and John Les Signs.
ReplyDeleteOf course Drew didn't "ask" to be a member of the council, he was "encouraged" to put his name forward by the current cabal, and his co-option was a foregone conclusion, in a totally undemocratic way!
ReplyDeleteWas the vacancy advertised?
ReplyDeleteSome community councils have not had elections for years, with them partly elected unopposed and partly by nomination/co-option. If you haven't have a look at my ideas for local government - I'd appreciate some feedback.
ReplyDeletehttp://acardiffvoice.blogspot.com/
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWas the vacancy advertised?
All vacancies are advertised, but you need to know where to look! There are two legal requirements to advertise a vacancy – firstly to let people know that they have a right to call a by election, and secondly to let people know that a co-option opportunity is available if an election isn't called.
The right to call an election is usually advertised on the Conwy Council website and in a notice on the village notice board (across the road from the take away).
The availability of co-option is advertised in both of those places and usually on the Llansanffraid Glan Conwy website and in the Community News part of the Weekly News.
The main "advert" though is current councillors telling their mates – which creates this system of nepotism and like voting for like. Basically if you are not a part of the clique you haven't got a hope in hell!
Well the planned community event has been and gone. For me this was a test to see which members of our non elected community council would support the fundraiser. Tickets only £3 affordable for all pay on the door an option, telephone numbers in the Weekly News and on the GCCC website for tickets or raffle prizes. 4 councillors turned up plus Graham, to support. Nothing from the rest of the motley crew not even a good luck message or a bottle of wine for the raffle.Thanks To Dan, Christine, John Spicer and Audrey Parry also ex councillor Bob Patton for supporting this event that made £1000. For shame on the rest of you.
ReplyDeleteThe vacancy was advertised on the Glan Conwy Community Council website under News / Vacancy with a closing date of Aug 20th 2011 plus an address to send the application. I think this is pretty transparent for someone looking for a vacancy on the community council. Perhaps the best person got the job????????
ReplyDeleteThank you anon. if you scroll up a few comments you will see that I have noted where the vacancies are advertised and included a link to the website that you mention. Those notices clearly do more than fulfil the legal requirements for notification; however I suspect that more interest might be raised if a copies of the notification put on the community notice board were also put up in the shop, take-away, cafe, pubs, Post Office, hairdressers etc - something that could be done without any noticeable additional cost.
ReplyDeleteAs to the best person winning, that seems unlikely as the victorious candidate was very late turning up for the co-option meeting and hasn't attended a single council meeting since.