Skip Navigation | HOME | UK Indymedia | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

manchester Indymedia

How stupid can a councillor be... or is he telling the truth????

David Lewis | 03.02.2007 22:58 | Culture | World

Councillor Mike James ( Labour) - Talking in a public meeting about the planning process for the LNG pipeline in Trebanos and Cilfrew.

Heather Pickford
Thank you very much.
Now Mike James is here this evening. Is there anything you wanted to add Mike.


Councillor Mike James ( Labour)
“Yes sure. Huw has bordered on slightly where we are. I think Cilfrew has brought it home to a lot of you in this chamber on how you get it wrong. Planning Law is so meticulous and it is Planning Law. You cannot get involved in any of these things until it is over, because once you do you can’t get involved ……and that’s how you saw Councillors leave because they were told by the Legal Section that if they did say they could be, it could be a criminal offence because they had attended meetings in Cilfrew in regards to the unit that was planned there. So that is why until tonight I have been unable to come to your meetings, because that would have shown that I was prejudiced in a way…… I really congratulate you on what you have done especially Ira, because that was a really brave thing, I have got to be honest. It took a lot of guts to do what you did and it could have cost you a lot of money. But you won the day and it did. The Evening Post has been supportive to you all and so has the BBC and they should be applauded for that and some of them have gone completely over the top with it, I think they are hoping you are going to keep on rolling with this, because it is good press. What the administration did in returning it to the DTI under their licence, which they gave, because when we had the site meeting up on the site there were things there, safety features that were being lied about, being lied about unfortunately by our Officers. Geoff White and our planning girl Nicola were blatantly lying that they did not know anything about a gas main that was put in 15 years ago. I knew it was there, but they did not even know, they were saying there is no gas main in this area at all and yet there is a cut in the trees across the mountain where it went through and put that into the collective parts of what you had found out yourselves we had it overturned. The DTI have made the correct decision, took them long enough to do it perhaps, but still they made the correct decision. We were fortunate, if it was not the need for Trebanos to be blasted. Three years ago they knew that mind. Three years they knew that there were geographical faults in Trebanos that were going to give them problems. There was a Company called Enterpose who planned the whole of this pipeline and priced for it for three million pounds more than Land & Rock or Land & Marine put in for, but they knew then the problems that were going to be in the whole length not only here but onwards. We developed a World Heritage Site in Brynmawr and now they are going through the centre of the Brecon National Park and I do not think that is a good thing but what they have said is they are going to remove every section of soil and turf and put it one side and mark where it came from and it would be put back. It becomes farcical if you listen to all these things. Cilfrew is something that I do not think we as an authority could argue very much with because when Cilfrew was put onto letters and e mails that were being sent through I honestly expected to see Pontardawe as Cilfrew and 500 yards up the road this new pumping station they are putting up. When we actually got there I was amazed it was as if Pontardawe was here and the pumping station was on top of the Gwrhyd Chapel. It was so far away it became, you had to see it to believe it, so I could not really see how I could support that, although the turmoil in the chamber again as with Trebanos was embarrassing to say the least with people getting up and walking out and other people coming in and other people sitting down and other people getting up. It was embarrassing to see and I hope I never ever see that again, we have got to have some sort of guidance in planning by our legal officers and our planning officers as to where we go in situations like this and there was a fear I believe in certain of my colleagues, labour Councillors who did not want to be involved and for that reason did not attend, but you can’t always be a Councillor when it is nice and hide away when it goes wrong. So thank you for inviting me tonight and I am really pleased to bring you up to speed with where I am on this and if there is any more you are going to talk about a pipeline I am going to leave anyway just in case there is something you will need support with later on’.

Heather Pickford
Yes exactly. Thank you very much for coming Mike and can I just say that having sat in the Swansea Council chamber 3 weeks ago, they made an equally appalling cock up. I do not think………

Mike James
Well we should not be doing it. We are effectively. We have professional paid legal representatives and advisers to Councillors to tell them how to proceed and how not to proceed and I really believe that Carol John cocked up wholesale and then tried to cement over it with all sorts of bullshit that we were supposed to believe. But the crux of it is our Officers were lying blatantly about safety features that should have been known about. So congratulations to you all it was a good fight and you deserve all the applause you can get from everybody’.



Geoff White – Head of Planning at Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council

Nicola – Nicola Pearce – Planning Officer at Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council who attended at site visits and also attended in the chamber during voting.

Carol John – Head of Legal Services at Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council and Monitoring Officer.

Heather Pickford – Chairwoman of CRAG ( Cwmtawe Resident’s Action Group)


Gwrhyd Chapel is between Rhyd y fro and Cwmllynfell and at least 3 miles from Pontardawe

David Lewis

Download this article in pdf format >>

Email this article to someone >>

Submit an addition or make a quick comment on this article >>

Comments

Hide the following comment

This is a joke!

03.02.2007 23:05

Llew


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Manchester Topics

Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Manchester Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

Manchester Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

Manchester Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

Manchester Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

Manchester Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

Manchester Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

Manchester Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

Manchester Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

Languages

english

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech