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At this month’s full council meeting, councillors debated a motion tabled by Deputy Council Leader, Cllr. Jane Gebbie (Lab, Pyle, Kenfig Hill & Cefn Cribwr), on recall of councillors. An amendment from Cllr. Alex Ulberini-Williams (Ind, Pencoed & Penprysg) was accepted and written into the motion.
Recall already exists for MPs and the final terms and conditions are currently being drafted for Members of the Senedd.
Essentially, if a recall petition receives enough signatures, an elected representative gets “sacked”, forcing a by-election (or replacement on the constituency list in the case of MSs).
Councillors can be disqualified whilst in office – for example, being sent to prison. But there’s no recall system.
The full text of the original motion is available here. The motion with Cllr. Ulberini-Williams’ amendment included is, in summary:
- The Council notes that public trust in politics is built upon accountability, transparency and integrity, but councillors remain exempt from recall systems even where there’s serious misconduct.
- The Council believes that elected representatives should remain accountable to the electorate throughout their term of office, and where that trust is breached the electorate should have the opportunity to decide whether that individual continues to represent them.
- Councillors should “not be able to hide behind a five-year mandate” to excuse serious misconduct”.
- The Council calls on the Welsh Government to introduce a law for a recall mechanism for councillors, setting clear grounds for recall for criminal or standards sanctions. This includes an independent investigation by the Public Services Ombudsman and a formal determination of serious misconduct by the Adjudication Panel for Wales.
- There should be a central fund to cover the cost of local government recall elections so councils don’t lose money as a result.
”No democratic remedy” for councillors breaching the public’s trust
Introducing the motion, Cllr. Gebbie said she and the Council Leader have received “hundreds of emails” regarding the conduct of one of her fellow ward members, Cllr. Owain Clatworthy (who stated during the meeting that he supported the motion in principle).
This has raised questions about whether his views represented those of the Council, as well as his suitability to sit on the Corporate Parenting Committee – which has responsibility for all looked-after children in the county, including asylum seekers. Residents can sign petitions and send emails but have no “democratic remedy” when an elected representative breaches their trust.
Cllr. Jonathan Pratt (Con, Newton) agreed in principle, but questioned whether it becomes “just another tool” to use against elected members in the same way it has against MPs, and the same way the Public Services Ombudsman has been used by political opponents. It’s gotten to a point where he no longer wants to be a councillor.
Cllr. Ross Penhale-Thomas (Ind, Maesteg West) said public discourse was getting nastier, and there was no longer any will to “agree to disagree”. Elected members have a role to tone down debate, but he was seriously concerned about how the forthcoming local elections will be conducted.
Cllr. Elaine Winstanley (Lab, Cornelly) added that the MP recall system is only used rarely for gross misconduct and genuine disgust at someone’s behaviour; this doesn’t infringe on free speech or anything else.
There was an informal/show of hands vote, with the majority accepting the motion and Cllr. Pratt voting against.
