A FORMER mayor of Barmouth has accused the town council of failing to investigate complaints made by the public against local businesses.

Last month, it was announced that John Sam Jones had left the council with immediate effect after years of loyal service.

He now says the reason why he quit was that he was worried the council was not acting in the town’s best interests for fear of creating “bad feeling” with local business owners.

Mr Jones told the Cambrian News: “Deciding to resign my seat on Barmouth Town Council is not a decision I made easily – but it is a decision that feels right.

“I believe that my years as a member of the town council, and my year as mayor, were characterised by openness – being seen about the town whilst walking my dogs and keeping my eyes open to possible problems, talking to people over their garden fence and in the checkout lines etc.

“I’d like to think that this openness invited people throughout the town to trust that I would be honest, straightforward and hard-working on their behalf.

“I resigned my seat because I no longer felt I deserved the trust placed in me and that I had become compromised.”

Mr Jones says he had began to have doubts about the “impartiality” of the town council because of its relationship with local businesses.

“I fully understand that, in a small community like Barmouth, the town council treads a narrow line where local business activity is concerned,” the ex-mayor added.

“In the past, the town council has been rigorous in persuing businesses which were trading outside their permit.

“More recently, however, there has been a tendency to let sleeping dogs lie.

“I felt uncomfortable, for example, when public complaints that a business was repeatedly blocking parking spaces with street furniture were not reported to the appropriate department of the county council, after an initial approach to the business by a member of the town council had failed to remedy the problem.

“My growing unease was made worse when, in recent months, the town council – whilst believing there was a possibility that a business was trading outside the conditions of its planning permission – declined to formally request clarification of the business’ status from the planning department for fear of alienating the owners and creating bad feeling.

“Individual town councillors did contact the planning department to seek clarification and were informed that the business was probably trading outside the conditions of its planning permission and that should Barmouth Town Council make an official request, the planning department would investigate the situation.

“But again the town council decided not to make any such request.

“To some this may seem trivial, but in my mind I felt as if I was betraying the fairly basic principle of impartiality.

“I felt that I could no longer honour the trust people put in me.”

When contacted by the Cambrian News, Barmouth mayor Cllr Matthew Harris said he didn’t want to comment on the reasons for Mr Jones’ resignation.