Powys County Council has announced the names that the newly elected Leader has chosen to serve in his Cabinet. It will be made up of 10 Cllrs. 3 of whom will be from the North (Montgomeryshire), and 7 from the South (B&R). Michael Jones has chosen only Lib Dems and Powys Inds, which is much as expected. I do not know how many of them speak Welsh. The new Cabinet will take over their duties on May 12th.
The full list, is;
Michael Jones - Leader.
Tony Thomas - Resources, Workforce and Housing.
Les Davies - Children and Partnerships.
Kath Roberts-Jones - Corporate Governance and assets.
Rosemarie Harris - Social Services, Care and Health.
Ken Harris - Waste, Climate Change and Welsh Language.
Leisure and Learning - Stephen Hayes.
Regeneration and Culture - Wyn Jones.
Liam Fitzpatrick - Change, Communication and Performance.
Geraint Hopkins - Environment and Regulation.
The only new name here is Kath Roberts-Jones, Cllr. for Kerry. Leaving the power table (currently named the Executive Board will be Montg. Inds, David Jones and Graham Brown, and Conservatives Russell George and Gareth Ratcliffe, both of whom are candidates in the National Assembly elections to be held on May 5th. Gary Price, who has also left, following his selection as Plaid Cymru'd candidate will be replaced for the next three months by Viola Evans.
I suppose there will have to be a Shadow Cabinet appointed in the new arrangements. And I'm not sure what's going to happen to all the Committee Chairmanships. The most interesting aspect of all to me will be the 'scrutiny' arrangements. No political system can be deemed properly democratic (in the modern sense) without strong 'scrutiny' committees, something I would expect the Assembly Government to take a view on.
5 comments:
The composition of the new Cabinet is intruiging but only for the lack of Welsh speaking members - indeed to a man and woman, the composition is actually made up of largely anti-Welsh (speaking) members. I agree with your views about scrutiny. Successful scrutiny is dependent on the attitudes of the executive to the idea of public accountability. Powys Council has managed in the past to plant some low calibre Members to Scrutiny, who have failed to hold the former Board to account for its decisions or to contribute to evidence-based policy making at the Council. Cosy relationships between senior officers and Board Members have also acted against proper accountability.
Wyn Jones.... in charge of culture? LOL!!!!
Gareth - I agree that a complete approach to scrutiny will be crucial. Personally, I support what's happened - but only if a strong system of scrutiny is put in place. Otherwise the task will fall to the media and others, eventually creating a bunker mentality. Lets hope not.
Roman - Indeed - the Bard of Abermule no less.
I would've sent something to the County Times about this, but I have no current interest in that paper until they remove Opik's column from it's pages.
My personal favourite is the 'Waste...and Welsh Language' portfolio - is that the new Cabinet giving a hint as to its prejudices?
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