Madam,

In essence all Ceredigion County Council decisions are made by the eight-strong Cabinet.

One of the few checks to the all powerful Cabinet is the ‘call in’ procedure. On Thursday, 22 March the county councillors met to discuss approving a revised constitution which they were strongly recommended to adopt, despite the absence of a flow chart which had been drawn up to explain the call-in procedure.

The monitoring officer expressed regret that the flow chart had not been available to either that meeting or the councillors’ workshops in December 2017. Cllrs Paul James and Paul Hinge enquired as to the wording of the call-in procedure. The monitoring officer admitted the wording had been revised but had not been marked as such in the document, as required.

Two unfortunate oversights in a document which demands accuracy. Alternatively, a cynical mind might conclude that these events in council could be construed as an attempt to further empower the Cabinet as, if those eagled-eyed councillors hadn’t spotted the unmarked changes in text, councillors may have had a rude shock when they next attempted to call in a Cabinet decision.

Yours etc,

George Holloway, Waunfawr, Aberystwyth.

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