Councillors clash over ‘disgusting stitch-up’

In a tumultuous night in the Welshpool Town Council chamber, three angry councillors walked out and shouted accusations of a ‘stitch-up’ over the huge multi-million-pound project to transform the Town Hall.

With tempers bubbling throughout what was one of the most chaotic full council meetings in recent memory, they boiled over after a recommendation for four councillors to make up a key Town Hall Transformation committee was voted out in favour of four others, prompting the Mayor to tell councillors to “calm down, calm down”.

With the meeting broadcasted live on Facebook, residents were able to witness first-hand the clear split on the Town Council which has resulted in a number of rows in recent times between the two blocks over several key issues.

Last night’s was over the make-up of the newly approved Town Hall Transformation Project Board, which will steer the massive transformation of the ailing building that is expected to run into millions of pounds.

A Town Council sub-committee, chaired by Cllr Phil Pritchard, had recommended that the four councillors to be on the Board should be himself, and councillors Estelle Bleivas, Sally Fitzgerald and Nick Howells.

But in an astonishing turn of events, an amendment was backed by a vote of 6-4 (with two abstentions) for those councillors to be replaced in favour of Cllrs Alison Davies, Morag Bailey, Bill Rowell and Richard Church.

Cllr Davies made the case that they should be spearheading the project due to their involvement from the start and during the public engagement process.

But, during the vote and following a heated debate, Cllr Chris Davies said that it was “absolutely ridiculous”, while Cllr Bleivas said it was a “total stitch-up”.

Cllr Phil Pritchard, who had questioned the legality of the vote, fumed: “What’s going on here is disgraceful. And you can see it more than anyone else Mr Mayor. It’s absolutely disgraceful. We are leaving this chamber. There are people in here voting on things that have no respect for the people of this town.”

Not for the first time this year, Cllrs Pritchard, Bleivas and Davies then left the meeting, joining Cllr Nick Howells who had also logged off online before the debate had even taken place.

A visibly distraught Cllr Fitzgerald added: “People that are passionate about the town, you have just kicked them off. It’s absolutely disgusting.”

The comments continued as the trio left the chamber, prompting Town Mayor, Cllr Phil Owen, to tell everyone to “calm down, calm down!”.

A vote then went ahead to accept the amended recommendations which are:

1. To approve the establishment of a Town Hall Transformation Project Board to oversee the project.

2. Delegate authority to the Town Clerk to make all decisions relating to the Restarting Welshpool Town’s Heart project within the approved budget and scope.

3. Require the Town Clerk to exercise this delegation only following consultation with the Project Board.

4. Approve the composition of the Project Board as up to 4 councillors plus the Town Mayor ex officio, and up to 4 co-opted members from the Community Stakeholder Group.

5. To appoint councillors Cllrs Alison Davies, Morag Bailey, Bill Rowell and Richard Church to the Board.