Plaid slams council for backing councillors who admitted unlawful action

Plaid Cymru has slammed Labour and Independent councillors in Carmarthenshire for backing council leaders who’d just admitted they’d acted unlawfully in aiding their Chief Executive to dodge paying tax.

The council’s Executive Board crumbled under constant Plaid pressure by accepting a Wales Audit Office report that they’d acted unlawfully in arranging for Chief Executive Mark James to receive a £16,000 salary supplement in lieu of pension contributions, in order to pay less income tax. Mr James is currently away from work pending the outcome of a police inquiry into the Auditor’s report.

But despite the Executive Board’s admission a Plaid Cymru motion of no confidence in the council’s Leader, Labour’s Kevin Madge, former Leader Cllr Meryl Gravell and present Independent group leader Cllr Pam Palmer, was defeated at an Extraordinary meeting of the council today.

“The Labour group and the so-called Independents voted en-bloc to support their discredited leaders,” said Plaid group leader Cllr Peter Hughes Griffiths at the end of a heated five-hour debate in County Hall. “A serious error was made by the Executive Board in 2012 on the pensions issue, but no-one will be called to account. This is a disgraceful state of affairs, which is sure to further damage the council’s reputation. Indeed, the public have every right to be outraged by the council’s behaviour.”