Pressure mounts on council leadership over tip-booking farce

Independent councillors have called for an Extraordinary General Meeting of Powys County Council when they intend proposing to abolish controversial plans for a booking system and charges at the county’s recycling centres.

The move comes after Powys Independent Group requests were denied for the issue to be debated at a full council meeting earlier this month, and Leader James Gibson-Watt claimed that the ‘silent majority’ was in support of its introduction from April 1.

Five members of the Independent Group were required to sign the call-in under the rules of the council’s constitution and it has been sent to the Chairman of Powys County Council, Cllr Jonathan Wilkinson. Along with the Chief Executive Emma Palmer, he will determine whether the motion is accepted.

If permitted the motion will be proposed by Cllr Gareth E. Jones (Llanelwedd) and seconded by Cllr Joy Jones (Newtown) and has also been signed by Cllr Ange Williams (Knighton), Cllr Graham Breeze (Welshpool Llanerchydol) and Cllr Gareth D. Jones (Llanfair Caereinion).

In a statement the group’s Joint Leaders Cllr Beverley Baynham (Presteigne) and Cllr Ange Williams said: “We are disappointed that we were not allowed the opportunity to raise this issue at the March meeting of the council and that is why we have taken this very serious action.

“We are not being listened to and not being allowed to present the views of our residents.

“We are also extremely unhappy that Cllr James Gibson-Watt, Leader of the Lib-Dem/Labour Cabinet, has chosen to say “the silent majority” is in favour of the plans to introduce the booking system and waste charges and that he thinks we are “overreacting”. Perhaps our Leader is not connecting with his residents.

“Our intention is to present an on-line petition launched by Cllr Joy Jones opposing the plans signed by around 4,500 people, and also to present evidence that similar schemes are failing for councils across the country.

“This gives the Council the opportunity to put the plans on hold for more research to be carried out and avoid the embarrassing situation of having to follow the route of other county councils in having to withdraw the booking and charging systems at a later date.”

This morning, Cllr Gibson-Watt doubled down on his claims that the changes will be welcomed by saying 1,000 negative comments on a MyWelshpool social media post was not indicative of the true feeling in the county.