Conflict of Interests

There are, understandably, quite strict rules about what a local councillor can and can't do. For instance, if they have a personal interest in a topic under discussion, they have to declare their interest (for instance, being related to someone who has a planning application, or being a school governor if the local school is being discussed). In such cases, they often have to leave the room while the rest of the councillors discuss the issue, and cannot vote. This is to keep the decisions of the council as unbiased and fair as possible.
And that's a good thing.
However, last night the only result of this desire for fairness was to stifle debate. Without legal advice from the County Council, our Town Councillors weren't sure what they could say - or not say. Was it a conflict of interests if you happened to live next door to a proposed development, for instance? Or if you had a business in the town which might be affected by a development? Or if you decided to put yourself forward as a councillor (and won your seat on the basis of that) because of a burning issue you wanted to address - only to discover that you would not be able to speak about it when you got on to the council?
Gareth has been through a legal process to give him a "blanket dispensation" so that he can speak on certain Hay matters (though not vote). Therefore he will be talking at a meeting about Clyro School, where he will be arguing against giving Clyro a large amount of money to rebuild, because he wants the money to be used for Hay School. He will not be able to vote at the meeting.
Our local councillors will also be going through the process for a "blanket dispensation" - though Fiona Howard was concerned about how far they should go on the form in declaring their interests. In a small town like Hay it's inevitable that the same people will end up being part of several local groups - and these rules seem to be more aimed at the County Council level. The legal advisor has also said that if a council member has joined a group, such as school governors, purely because the council asked them to, and to be a voice of the council on that body, then they cannot take part in discussions or votes when they get back to the council chamber - which seems to defeat the object of having them join the group in the first place. It also seems to stop them from finding out what members of the public want, if they are unable to enter into discussions about the issues even outside the council chamber.
There was a lot of confusion in the room, and Clarence Meredith from the County Council will be asked to come to Hay and explain what the legal position is. Paul Griffiths from the County Council is due to come to Hay to speak to the councillors as well.
There were two specific matters that this affected, both of them very important to the future of Hay. One is the school development, and the other is the proposed closure of Bronllys Hospital.
There was a lot of dis-satisfaction about the meetings of the Health authority bodies too - at one of them, the minutes of the previous meeting could not be agreed on as a fair and true record, and it went downhill from there (apparently the person taking the minutes was also speaking at the meeting - and I know from experience how hard it is to do both well). Steve Like was also disgusted by the booklet that was given out at one of the Health meetings - he was led to believe that it would be an overview of health provision in the south east of the county - but it seemed to be mainly about the stroke unit at Bronllys, which may be moved to Brecon. There will be another meeting about Bronllys on Wednesday, 3rd October, at 5.30pm, and three councillors will be going to that (all of them managing to avoid the 'conflict of interest' problems). Steve Like made the point that the thing to remember is that it's not the building that is important - it's the health and well-being of the patients in this area. He was also very annoyed - and so were other councillors - about an email that was sent round criticising him and Rob Golesworthy, and he wants an apology.
This is not the first time that the Stroke Unit has been threatened, apparently - though it has always been saved at its present location before.

There will be a meeting of the Bronllys League of Friends, to which AMs and MPs have been invited, in Talgarth on 26th October.