Plaid Cymru Llanelli Town Branch Calls For Full Independent Investigation

PLAID CYMRU LLANELLI TOWN BRANCH CALLS FOR FULL INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION

PRINCIPLES BEFORE POLITICS

The Llanelli Town Plaid Cymru Branch has written to the Plaid Cymru National Chair Alun Ffred Jones, Leader Leanne Wood and Chief Executive Gareth Clubb to call for a full and independent investigation into:

• The process of selection of a candidate by the Party centrally for the 2017 General Election.
• The formal complaints submitted in August 2017 by 26 members in relation to the conduct of the selected candidate, that have not been addressed in accordance with the Party’s official disciplinary procedures.
• The National Chair’s suspension of two members without due process.
• The locking out of certain elected officers and members from Plaid’s working office in Llanelli since August 2017.

Noting that:

• Many Llanelli members have already resigned owing to these issues.
• No progress has been made to resolve the crisis within the Constituency.
• All complaints and communications from members have to date been ignored.
• Any local political activities have become impossible.

A vote of no confidence in the Chair and Secretary of the Llanelli Constituency was unanimously passed at a meeting of the Llanelli Town Branch on 5 February 2018.

A significant number of the remaining Party members across Llanelli are now seriously considering resigning from the Party.

Supplementary Information:

The Llanelli Town Branch of Plaid Cymru encloses some further information as to the current crisis within the Constituency.

A vote of no confidence in the Chair (Deris Williams) and Secretary (Mari Arthur) has now been unanimously passed.

Every member of the Town Branch wants to see the party moving forward and winning in our target seat of Llanelli once again but we could not be further away from that as things stand.

Unfortunately, there have been problems at a local level since the imposition of a candidate within the Constituency last April.

Despite this, many of our stalwarts tried our best to keep things together and attempted to do so in the interests of the Party but we are now considering giving up.

After the election, a minority of the party locally made it very clear that they were not prepared to work with others and their conduct subsequently has been very worrying and in some cases distressing.

A series of formal complaints have been submitted as a result of actions both of Mari Arthur and a few other members.

These complaints have not been dealt with by the Party’s official disciplinary procedures, and still over 6 months later there has been no response nor attempt to resolve this crisis. This is the reason why so many members are now leaving and why some branches have effectively collapsed.

Below are some examples of inappropriate behaviour:

1. An infiltration of the Party by members of other political organisations during the campaign.
2.  Party members blocked on Plaid Llanelli social media, newspaper columns deleted, council work removed. 
3. A “Secret Group” established online and using what can only be described as abusive terminology and deliberately encouraging bullying attitudes.  
4. Series of social media attacks and a constant barrage of harassment for a period of over 6 months aimed at members, their families, friends, Plaid colleagues and Plaid AMs.
5. Despite several recommendations from the Chief Executive, the Constituency Chair has failed to e-mail certain members regarding their conduct on social media.
6. Several inaccurate, inappropriate statements made to the press which have only added fuel to the fire.
7. Serious, unfounded allegations made against a number of members causing considerable distress in recent months. 
8. Party members and Councillors have been locked out of the office since August 2017, as of now 180 days while others including Labour Party representatives have been permitted access including the leader of the opposition on Carmarthenshire County Council. Additionally, the office door has been slammed in the faces of long-standing Plaid members.
9. Canvassing training session for the Llanelli Town Branch cancelled due to refusal of access to the office premises. Request was made to the Constituency Chair and Secretary to allow access but this was ignored.
10. Hard copies of Constituency minutes are reportedly missing from the office. 
11. The undermining of other Constituency Officers and Councillors in their everyday duties by the refusal of the Constituency Chair and Secretary who are in possession of keys to allow access to the office and its facilities. 
12. Holding of unconstitutional meetings where decisions have been made and imposed on the membership.
13. Party members and Councillors intimidated and abused at public events. 

All of the above breach a number of the Party’s standing orders and procedures.

It is therefore with sadness when we say now that we are seriously considering our positions after decades of loyal service to the Party in this constituency.