New-York-Daily-News-cneifiwr-emlyn

This week's meeting of Carmarthenshire County Council was notable for several interesting revelations. We learned, for example, about the extent of political cooperation between Labour and the Independents as they stitched up a deal to ensure that control of the council would remain in the same hands whatever the outcome of the elections in May. We learned a little more about the financial arrangements between the Council and Scarlets, and we learned that the Council does not normally carry out due diligence on the financial affairs of the organisations to which it gives large amounts of money.

The last point came up in a discussion about social care, a discussion which highlighted once again the Tweedle Dee-Tweedle Dum relationship between the Independents and the Labour leadership. The Independents believe strongly in outsourcing social care, and make no bones about it. Politically this is tricky territory for Labour, so although some backbench Labour councillors are clearly worried about it, the leadership sits quietly while Meryl Gravell, Pam Palmer, Mair Stephens, Jane Tremlett et al make all the noise in the knowledge that if any of this came to a vote, the whips would ensure that Labour and the Independents stand shoulder to shoulder.

In that way, Labour can support Big Society outsourcing without antagonising the unions and its grassroots supporters.

During the course of this discussion allegations were made about the management of one "third sector" organisation in Llanelli, where the charity's chief executive is apparently being paid £57,500 a year and, it is alleged, various family members make up part of the rest of the payroll.

No names were mentioned, but typically "third sector" organisations like this receive funding from three main sources: the Welsh Government, the Lottery and the County Council. Over the years, this funding amounts to very large sums of money.

The Chief Executive told councillors that the Council was interested principally in the quality of service being delivered by such organisations, and that it "normally" left due diligence to the government, and presumably the Lottery (although he did not say that).

As we know now after the scandals involving, for example, Awema and Plas Madoc Communities First in Wrexham, doling out public money with your eyes closed in the assumption that somebody else is doing the checks is not necessarily fool-proof.

One of the things which both Plas Madoc and Awema had in common was the involvement of families in their operations, and in the case of Awema at least there were clear warnings that all was not well long before the brown stuff hit the fan.

So why do public bodies ignore warning signs in cases like these? Incompetence probably has a role to play, but councils and governments often invest more than money in these ventures. We are talking about political capital. 

If you have a close relationship with an organisation, have championed and defended it and been photographed and filmed shaking hands and cutting ribbons, admitting that you were wrong can be very difficult.

And here we come to one of the weaknesses of the cabinet system in local government, where political bigwigs tend to stay around for a very long time. They appoint the senior officers, ensure that they are paid very handsomely and nominate them for CBEs, OBEs and all the rest of the fairytale nonsense. Over time, the senior political and professional upper echelons of councils can become joined at the hip with a single agenda where failure and admitting mistakes are not an option, and the politicians and senior officers look out for each other.

The organisation referred to in Wednesday's debate is not the only third sector organisation in Carmarthenshire to have been given the enthusiastic backing of the council's top brass and lots and lots of public money. It is also not the only organisation involving families and husband and wife teams.

As with Awema, there have also been plenty of warning signs, including major discrepancies between what the the council says on the one hand, and the third sector organisations say on the other.

So if the Council is unwilling or unable to lift up the stone, who will?

Step forward the Wales Audit Office, but then they don't seem very keen to peer under stones either.

When a member of the public raised concerns about one of the council's schemes and pointed out the discrepancies between what was being said by the council and the recipient of large amounts of public money, the WAO did what it always seems to do. It nipped down the road and asked the council officers if everything was OK. You can guess what the answer was.

As for the discrepancies, the WAO's position seems to be that the council's version is the only one which counts. Others simply don't exist, so there is no discrepancy. 

The WAO has also repeatedly made it clear that it is not interested in what councils spend their money on. The only thing which matters, it says, is whether all of the right boxes were ticked along the way and the most efficient path was taken, even if the destination involved jumping off a cliff.

So if the council decided to replace metal teapots in its canteens with chocolate ones, the WAO would only be interested in making sure that the tendering process was correctly followed and the decision had been taken with the correct authorisation.

Having said that, the only course of action for any councillors worried about council funding of third sector organisations is to go to the WAO and try to insist that, rather than the usual cosy chat with officers in County Hall, the auditors go and take a long, hard look at the recipients of the money.

In one case that springs to mind, that may not be easy because the organisation has successfully ensured that its finances are completely and legally closed to all public scrutiny.

As we all grow older and more frail, language and the ability to communicate become even more important, especially when we lose the ability to do many of the things which we used to take for granted. As we get older, our worlds grow smaller, and the world can come to seem a frightening and lonely place.

Dementia, severe strokes and other medical conditions such as Parkinson's all affect our ability to use language and communicate, and the numbers of people with dementia in its various forms are rising fast.

Recently Beti George, a broadcaster who is best known to Welsh-speaking audiences, has made a number of radio and television programmes about different aspects of dementia, and has been campaigning to raise public awareness of the illness for some time. Her partner is one of those affected.

By coincidence the broadcast of one of Beti's programmes on S4C (Un o bob tri - One in three) came a few days after I had got back from visiting some residential homes in England. Two of the homes had a high proportion of dementia sufferers, and some were in the advanced stages of the disease, unable to move, feed themselves or communicate. Others were much more responsive.

I was visiting these homes as part of a project which is, at its heart, about communicating with older people, whether they have dementia or not, and it was a very rewarding experience. Making someone laugh, or even just getting a smile from someone who is otherwise not responsive is beautiful. Sometimes people will respond with memories; they might sing along to a song, join in reciting a short poem or talk about things they like or remember. A picture of a robin was probably the single most popular thing I had in my bag of tricks.

For people whose first language is Welsh, dementia can mean that as the disease progresses, they lose their ability to speak and understand English first. If your carers don't speak Welsh, the world can suddenly become a very lonely and frightening place.

Severe strokes can also affect language, and people who were otherwise bilingual can lose the ability to communicate in their second language. I know a young woman who is a speech therapist. She had been learning Welsh for a few months, and told me about one of her patients from a small village in the north of Pembrokeshire. This elderly lady had suffered a severe stroke and was slowly recovering. Being greeted in Welsh meant the world to that old lady.

Parkinson's does not rob people of their memories or reasoning abilities, but it can affect people's speech. My Dad, now 82, was diagnosed with Parkinson's 20 years ago, and his voice is sometimes extremely weak. But he loves to talk, and it is often very difficult or even impossible to understand what he is saying. It can be very frustrating for him, and requires a lot of patience from the people around him.

Of course, it is not just old people for whom language is important. We all of us, especially children, will feel more secure and less vulnerable if we can speak to people in the language of our homes and families when we are ill. Imagine a child with leukaemia who comes from a Welsh-speaking family ending up in a big city hospital where nobody or hardly anybody speaks Welsh.

Yesterday I went to observe a meeting at County Hall in Carmarthen. Part of that involved a fairly lengthy discussion about the annual report of the Director of Social Care. The report is very long, and if truth be told, not the most inspiring document you have ever read. The discussion largely reflected that, but one of the councillors, Alun Lenny, asked about Welsh language provision for dementia patients.

The councillor responsible for social care services on the ruling Executive Board, Jane Tremlett, responded that steps were being taken to provide non-Welsh speaking care staff with basic language skills.

At least that's something, because Carmarthenshire as a local authority has a pretty poor record when it comes to the language. Like all other local authorities in Wales, it has adopted a formal language plan, and is supposed to produce an annual report to show what progress if any is being made. Currently those reports on the council website are unavailable, but reports from previous years show that only a tiny proportion of the council's staff receive any training in the language (we're talking about 1-2%).

So we should welcome the initiative to provide at least some basic Welsh training for carers, although how adequate that training will be and whether the staff who have received it will actually put it to use is another matter. The truth is that being able to communicate with a sick child or an elderly person with dementia, Parkinson's or the after-effects of a stroke requires much more than being able to say Bore da.

The Welsh Government launched an initiative called Mwy na geiriau - More than words to raise awareness of this problem and to try to improve Welsh language provision, but we clearly still have a long way to go, even in places with high proportions of Welsh speakers, such as Carmarthenshire.

My reason for writing about this in English is partly to try to raise awareness a little, but also to show non-Welsh speaking readers, including those who are downright hostile to the language, why language matters and why language campaigners should not be dismissed as unreasonable fanatics.

20 years ago my wife, who is German, went to hospital to give birth to our youngest daughter. By a pure stroke of chance, the midwife just happened to be German also. It was a slightly surreal experience for me in an NHS hospital being bossed about by a midwife in German, but it made a huge difference to my wife in what was a fairly difficult delivery.

Here's a short film with English subtitles to end with.

You can just imagine Council Chair, Siân Thomas, asking a group of children, "Now who can tell me what it says under the County's Coat of Arms? No, it's not that Kevin. Winston, do put that down".

Well, the answer is Rhyddid Gwerin Ffyniant Gwlad, which roughly translated means "the freedom of the people ensures the prosperity of the land". It really ought to be changed.

Socks and spin

Skipping over the Annual Treasury Management and Prudential Indicator Report 2011-12, we reached the Annual Report of the Director of Social Services. That's the one which told us about Mr Davies's socks.

The Director, Bruce McLernon, took 7 pages to deliver his introduction to the report, and he was not about to let us off any more lightly.

Perhaps it was the acoustics in the public gallery, or perhaps it was the delivery, but Mr McLernon could be heard mumbling rapidly in a monotonous Ulster drawl for what felt like hours.

He told us, somewhere near the beginning, that he enjoyed preparing these annual reports because he could highlight all of the good things that were happening. Which is actually spin for, well, spin.

Somewhere towards the end he got on to Areas for Improvement.

If you have been around the block a few times, you will know that when you get to questions in a job interview about your strengths and weaknesses, you must never, ever admit to any weaknesses. What you do is take a strength and present it as a weakness. For example, "I am not a very patient person.I like to see results".

Glynog Davies decided to try a bit of engagement. What could the council do to help people with learning difficulties, especially those in rural areas, to develop and learn new skills?

Caebrwyn has discovered the reason for the shouting - see Sewers and Fisticuffs (Almost).

The new term started after a break of three months, although I have to report that quite a number of the pupils appeared to have decided to extend their holidays. The Independent benches were noticeably very bare, with absentees including Pam Palmer (one of our two deputy leaders, salary £31,000+) and Llandovery's Ivor Jackson (believed to be enjoying a cruise). Also absent from school was Labour's Keith Davies (no relation as far as we know to the elderly party going Assembly Member for Llanelli). Keith is Executive Board Member responsible for, um, schools.

The absentee role call was read out by Chief Executive Mark James in Welsh, one of his very rare forays in the language. Da iawn chi! What a pity that so many senior councillors who clearly have quite a good grasp of the language, including Kevin Madge, Tegwen Devichand and Meryl Gravell avoid using it when they could be setting an example.

The Headmistress, or Chair, was in particularly sunny mood, despite having attended over 100 events during the summer, and even the most hard-bitten cynics were putty in her hands. Except for Cllr Winston Lemon, who was clearly a very naughty boy at school.

The Chair is short of stature, and the massive chain of office seemed to have grown over the summer months. If that wasn't enough, she was wearing a pair of gigantic gold earrings. It's probably what Boudicca looked like as she prepared to slaughter the Romans. Perhaps she will have blades fitted to the wheels of the limo, now that Kev has got one of his own.

She has such a pleasant, homely voice that she could probably announce that the Council had issued an order for the massacre of the first born in every household in the county, and still have everybody cooing and aaah-ing. At least that was the effect she had on Cneifiwr until he realised that she had just announced that this month's crop of honours included Dave Gilbert, the Director of Regeneration and Leisure, who can now add OBE to his name.

Mr Gilbert is one of those people who always looks as though he is about to hit someone, although as the second highest earner in Carmarthenshire, he should have every reason to look very pleased with himself.

Uncharitably, Cneifiwr's thoughts turned to a recent report by a committee of the House of Commons which criticised the honours system for dishing out awards to people just for doing their jobs.

One of the first items of business was the latest humdinger of a report from the Ombudsman for Public Services. This was the report which took the council to task for its treatment of Mr M, a wheelchair user allocated a house that was not adapted for wheelchairs.

If you read the Council's summary of the saga, it is obvious that the Ombudsman will not be getting an invite to this year's Christmas party, but the line that had clearly been agreed for the public meeting was to say, between clenched teeth, that all this happened a very long time ago and that everything had been sorted out. Now can we move on please.

Unfortunately a few of the awkward squad insisted on dragging things out. All the usual suspects, such as Siân Caiach, Glynog Davies, Winston Lemon and Alan Speake bundled in with horror stories of their own. Glynog Davies did a bit of joy riding on a mobility scooter as he told us about an elderly man who was trapped in his home because of the council's inability to provide him with a ramp.

The carefully planned official response collapsed at this point, with Chief Executive Mark James CBE weighing in. He was clearly not in a very good mood, and ticked councillors off for bringing up individual ward matters. The Independents, who would never raise the concerns of their constituents (seriously, they wouldn't) all made approving noises.

But Mr James was off on one. Reading this report, he declared, officers should not have given Mr M and his family a house. They should have been left in their emergency B&B. But officers had nevertheless taken the right decision.

So the wrong decision was, in the same breath, also the right one. It's displays of verbal acrobatics like this that make you realise what separates council chief executives from the chaff. That and a couple of hundred thousand pounds a year.

There are several other reports from the ombudsman in the queue, and so the ombudsman may become a permanent fixture on the agenda. Thinking perhaps of one report where the council is taking court action, the Chief Executive ended discussion with the observation that "we do take exception to what the Ombudsman says on occasion".

We moved on to the closure of the Argel residential home in Carmarthen, which is being redeveloped. Cllr Jane Tremlett, Executive Board Member for Care and Social Services, rose regally. Think Queen's Christmas broadcast 1954. "We were pleased to note that the consultation went extremely well; it was very gratifying for one to know that some residents had been given their first choice of home as they were being rehoused", she told the Commonwealth.

A long and rather confused discussion ensued about the costs of the redevelopment. There is a budgetary shortfall of £1.5 million. Cllr Caiach wanted to know where the money was coming from and whether one of the council's holy cows might have to go for a ride in the butcher's van.

The Chief Executive intervened to give this most unruly pupil a lesson in basic maths. She was confusing the revenue and capital budgets, he sighed, dismissing her silly schoolgirl suggestions that this might cause a rise in council tax.

Rather awkwardly the Head of Maths piped up to point out that all council borrowing is financed by the taxpayer.

Another councillor wanted to know whether the council was planning the additional capacity it would need for care of the elderly based on the Local Development Plan's forecast of a population explosion in Carmarthenshire.

We will never know (although we can guess), because at this point Kevin Madge decided to pop up and thank everybody. He looked forward to building the new home, and this is ongoing, um, er, it's exciting.

To be fair, that was his most coherent speech of the day.

In Part II some interesting revelations will be made.

Off to Carmarthen today to see democracy in action, or rather the September meeting of Carmarthenshire County Council.

Fortunately the need to earn a crust will prevent Cneifiwr from attending any more council meetings for the foreseeable future, as they are held at times when most people of working age are unable to attend. Perhaps we will one day be able to watch them online.

In the meantime there has been an exchange of correspondence (here) between Mr John Butler, a resident of Flintshire, and the Local Government and Communities Minister, Carl Sargeant.

Mr Butler writes eloquently about how the proceedings of so many public institutions, from committee meetings at Westminster and sessions of the Welsh Assembly to the Leveson inquiry can be watched by anyone who can access the Internet. Not so Welsh councils.

Mr Sargeant responds briefly to express the hope that councils will embrace the "principle of recording council meetings", while reminding Mr Butler that they are by law supposed to allow the public to attend meetings unless there are "confidential or commercial" matters under discussion.

As we know in Carmarthenshire, proposals for the transfer of public toilets to community councils are just one example of  highly sensitive confidential and commercial matters which can be used to close meetings to the public.

Unlike his colleague in Education, Carl Sargeant has a paralysing phobia when it comes to intervening in anything. Just about every letter he writes seems to contain some variation on the theme of not wishing to stick his ore in to local government business, which clearly has nothing to do with him as minister for local government.

Perhaps his staff have created special macros in Microsoft Word so that, by pressing just a couple of keys, they can spew out a range of stock sentences such as "It is not my intention to issue guidance or advice on this matter".

The Minister's reply to Mr Butler does however contain one interesting novelty, which is the need "in modern society" to consider security.

As far as I am aware, this is the first time anyone has suggested that allowing the public into meetings of Welsh councils has security implications.

Will Abergwili Community Council have to find funds in its budget for airport scanners and machine-gun toting policemen? Will the public gallery in County Hall have to be screened off with bullet-proof glass?

The implications are immense.

Perhaps as a government minister Carl Sargeant is privy to classified information from MI6 about groups which may pose a threat to Welsh councils. Are Merched y Wawr secretly planning a mass attack in Ceredigion? Is the Baptist Mujahedin grouping in Ynys Môn? Will the Llandovery Allotments Association strike in Carmarthen?

Thank goodness for Carl Sargeant. How could we sleep otherwise?

Johnstown was once a small village close to the county town of Carmarthen, although these days much of it is a very drab and depressing urban sprawl of trading estates, with a little light industry thrown in.

The recession and Carmarthenshire County Council's continuing love affair with retail development elsewhere in the town, which it sees as the answer to all our economic woes, have both taken their toll in Johnstown, now pock-marked with empty buildings and derelict sites. In fact, the council apparently sees Johnstown as a rural community because it has taken to using European Rural Development money to award grants to Towy Community Church and its proposed bowling alley/food bank/furniture recycling/debt counselling/therapy/performing arts centre/church/auditorium in the former St Ivel creamery.

Incidentally, Towy Community Church says that several hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of work have been carried out on the old creamery. Can you spot it?

Now it seems that Towy Community Church could be getting some competition in Johnstown, with the announcement that Bethel Community Church wants to take over the former MFI premises there as it expands its operations.

Whether there is a doctrinal difference between the two churches is hard to say because both seem to believe in pretty much the same brand of evangelical religion.

There is nothing in the announcement or on the church's website to suggest that it will be seeking funding from the county council, although given the generous support shown for Towy Community Church, Bethel Community Church must surely be tempted. They will, however, need planning permission for whatever it is they want to do with the MFI building.

Watch this space.

Does dim rhaid i neb sgwennu blog yng Nghymru ar wahân i ychydig o fois y Bîb fel Vaughan Roderick a Betsan Powys (gweler telerau ac amodau eu cyflogaeth), felly pam fod pobl yn blogio? Nid oherwydd yr arian, mae'n sicr.

Yn fy achos i, y profiad o geisio cael gwybodaeth syml gan y Cyngor Sir wnaeth i fi wylltio. Dim ond gofyn am adroddiad am draffig lleol ac astudiaeth cynllunio manwerthu roeddwn i. Doeddwn i ddim yn disgwyl brwydr hir a rhwystredigaethus yn fy niniweidrwydd.

Es i ati i ddarllen erthyglau di-ri o'r wasg a blogiau am y Cyngor cyn dod i'r casgliad bod yna rywbeth o'i le. Dechrau llethr lithrig oedd hyn dw i'n sylweddoli nawr, ond dechrau digon diniwed.

Y cam nesaf oedd gadael sylwadau ar flogiau pobl eraill ac o dan straeon Golwg 360, cyn penderfynu creu blog fy hun. Ar unwaith roeddwn i'n gaeth i flogio.

Boed hyn yn wers i bawb, ond gan dy fod ti'n darllen y blog yma, mae'n rhy hwyr, falle.

Un o gwestiynau fu'n rhaid ymladd ag e ar y cychwyn oedd, pa iaith? Penderfynais i gadw blog dwyieithog, ond wedi blwyddyn a mwy o flogio, mae'n rhaid cyfaddef mai yn Saesneg yw'r rhan fwyaf o'r blogiadau, ac dw i'n amau nad yw dwy iaith o fewn un blog yn llwyddiannus. Dylwn i fod wedi dewis un iaith a glynu ati.

Ffordd arall o fynd ati yw cadw mwy nag un blog, ac enghraifft amlwg ar hyn yw'r Hen Rech Flin, er ei fod yn dawel ers sbel.

Wrth i ti, fel blogwr newydd, wynebu'r dewis rhwng y ddwy iaith, mae'n well bod yn onest. Pwy yw'r gynulleidfa a beth yw nod dy flog? Wrth reswm, mae maint y gynulleidfa Gymraeg yn llai, ond o weld ystadegau BlogMenai a bywiogrwydd y sylwadau arno, mae'n amlwg bod hen ddigon o bobl sydd am ddarllen blogiau Cymraeg. Ac mae yna rai dylanwadol yn eu plith, mae'n debyg.

Yn ôl Ifan Morgan Jones, mae'n bosib bod oes euraidd y blogiau Cymraeg wedi mynd, er eu bod nhw'n gallu addasu a goroesi wrth i'r cyfryngau cymdeithasol newid, yn ei farn yntau.

Yn y cyfamser, roeddwn i'n siomedig gweld cyn lleied o flogiau Cymraeg ar restr fer Gwobrau Blogiau Cymru - dim ond un a dweud y gwir. Mae Ifan, fel aelod o'r panel, wedi rhoi esboniad am hyn ar ei flog (yma).

Er bod rhyw 400 o flogiau Cymraeg ar restr Hedyn, mae nifer ohonyn nhw wedi hen ddiflannu, mae rhai eraill mewn limbo, tra bod ambell un newydd yn dod i'r fei. Ac wedyn, mae'n dal yn bosib darganfod tlysau bach fel Sgen ti job i fi?

Felly, gyfeillion, mae wastad lle i flogiau Cymraeg newydd am unrhyw bwnc, boed hynny am fwyd neu farddoniaeth, garddio neu grynj. O ran anffyddiaeth, mae Dylan Llyr wedi cornelu'r farchnad, rhaid dweud.

Byddai'n dda gweld mwy o Gymraeg ar y rhestr fer y flwyddyn nesaf. Beth amdani?

Fe fydd rhaid i'r Cneifiwr ddod oddi ar y ffens ddwyieithog cyn hynny, siŵr o fod.