Labour's Hubris In Caerphilly Continues.

Caerphilly Council Labour leader Harry Andrews has comfortably survived a motion of no-confidence moved against him over his handling of the authority’s senior pay scandal.

Councillors divided on party lines to defeat the Plaid Cymru opposition motion by 43 votes to 15 at Yesterday's evening meeting

Though There are 20 Plaid Councillors  3 Independents  to 49 Labour with one seat currently vacant.

So perhaps the opposition were somewhat lax in getting their vote in.


The council has been in turmoil since last December, it was e revealed how 21 senior managers had secretly been awarded huge pay rises.

Chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan wrote a report recommending substantial pay increases for himself and his senior colleagues at a time when the bulk of the authority’s staff was enduring a third year of a pay freeze.

Mr O’Sullivan’s own salary was increased from £132,000 to £158,000.

As reported on Wales on Line :

Last month Anthony Barrett, the Assistant Auditor General for Wales, published a Public Interest Report which stated that the way the rises were awarded had been unlawful. Mr O’Sullivan should not have written a report recommending a pay rise for himself and he should not have attended the committee meeting where the recommendations were approved.
Mr Barrett also concluded that the meeting itself had been called unlawfully because it had not been properly advertised.
In the aftermath of Mr Barrett’s report, Mr O’Sullivan was suspended pending disciplinary action. Avon and Somerset Police had also been asked by Gwent Police to carry out an inquiry to see whether any criminal offences were committed.

If Mr Andrews had been a Government or Assembly Minister then he would have probably taken responsibility for this fiasco and resigned.


Instead the BBC report that after the vote Mr Andrews was given a standing ovation ofter the vote/

Labour, may have had an argument that the Plaid motion was desperate distraction” prior to the meeting.

But given their leader who seems to have taken no responsibility fir his part in a action which seems to be unlawful and resulted in a police inquiry seems to portray arrogance.and contempt for the lower paid staff and the public at large.

As Labour, returns to its traditional position of power in much of Wales, it seems that they have leaned no lessons and still believe that they have almost a divine right to rule.