Local councillor exits meeting over £400k question snub

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

A senior Powys Conservative councillor angrily left a cabinet meeting after being told he could not question why a recommendation from his committee had been rejected.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Liberal Democrat/Labour cabinet yesterday (Tuesday), senior councillors received a report on how the 2026/2027 budget performed during the first quarter of the year, from April to the end of June.

The report has already gone in front of all three scrutiny committees for discussion, as well as the Finance Panel.

Recommendations from all committees are provided to the cabinet and a response to these is now published before the cabinet meeting.

One of the recommendations made by the Learning and Skills Scrutiny Committee earlier this month was around giving over £440,000 to Crickhowell High School.

This is to be used to write off debts incurred by the school for managing the sports and library facility there for the community.

The committee wanted to better understand the reasons behind the payment and to have a “dedicated report” explaining it before the transfer is agreed.

This money transfer, known as a “virement”, was amongst a number contained in the report which were to be agreed by cabinet.

Council leader Cllr Jake Berriman (Liberal Democrat – Llandrindod North) told both Cllr Aled Davies, who chairs the Finance Panel, and Cllr Gwynfor Thomas, who chairs the Learning and Skills Scrutiny Committee, that they would not be allowed to speak at the meeting.

He said that this was because they had not made official “requests” to do so.

Cllr Berriman said: “I will, however, ask whether any cabinet colleagues have any questions that hearing from you might assist them in reaching the recommendations today.

“I’m getting lots of shakes of the head.”

Cabinet then went on to vote and approved the report.

A few minutes later, Cllr Berriman was forced into a U-turn.

Cllr Berriman said: “I have had some advice. I will return to invite them to give their recommendations from their respective scrutiny committees.

“Whilst there were no questions from cabinet, I should probably have invited them to make the recommendations even though they have been responded to already.”

He added that a fresh vote would take place.

Cllr Thomas said: “I’m rather embarrassed about all this. I wonder why you didn’t follow the constitution, which clearly identifies that I’m allowed to speak.

“Can you undo the vote? Is it constitutionally correct? You’ve already messed up once.”

Monitoring officer Debby Jones said that it was “fine” for the vote to be re-taken.

Cllr Thomas went on to say that the new expectation of looking at the budget had proved “difficult” for his committee.

Cllr Thomas said: “The biggest problem is the rejection of the scrutiny recommendation in relation to virements.

“By rejecting the recommendation, cabinet has missed the opportunity to provide transparency and it raises a few questions on what precedent this sets for other schools.”

Cllr Berriman stopped Cllr Thomas and brought in Ms Jones for more advice.

Ms Jones told Cllr Thomas he was “only” supposed to present the recommendations to cabinet.

Cllr Thomas said: “I was providing the recommendation and the response was confusing, so I was asking for greater clarity. If I’m not allowed to do it, I shall just leave the meeting.

“You don’t want to listen to the views of council members, these are really relevant comments, we want greater detail.”

Cllr Berriman said: “You’re not to pose questions in respect to points that have been responded to.”

At that point, Cllr Thomas’ screen went blank and Cllr Berriman said: “He’s left the meeting.”

The cabinet again voted to approve the report.

At the end of the meeting, Cllr Berriman stressed: “I have apologised for the error I made. Whether it’s accepted is another matter.

“I remedied that within the meeting in terms of the constitutional arrangements.”