Motion on Kingdom could be held in secret at Executive Board

Plaid Cymru have been told their motion due to be heard at the Executive Board could be placed into ‘Part 2’, a secret session of the meeting, and have declared their intent to challenge such a ruling.

Plaid Cymru councillors have tabled a formal motion calling on Wrexham Council to suspend the use of the controversial Kingdom litter enforcement in the county borough, and it is on the agenda for the meeting starting at 10am.

An email exchange provided to us indicates Wrexham Council’s Legal Officer had attempted to make contact with the Plaid Cymru group at the end of Monday afternoon from around 5pm, however was unable to, and therefore sent an email with the news just after 5:30pm.

The email released by Cllr Jones notes the advice from the Officer being: “…that the Executive Board is likely to consider your motion as a part ii item on the agenda (under para 14) as it concerns contractual arrangements with a third party and if that is the case the order of business may be varied so that the motion is dealt with at the conclusion of the part ii item on the agenda.”

A request has been made to review the advice prior to the meeting as Cllr Harper states there is ‘no grounds to justify that and it clearly isn’t in the public interest’.

The decision is not yet firm until the meeting is held, with the decision on if to move into a Part 2 ‘secret’ section of the meeting in the gift of a vote.

It is also possible the motion may not be heard at all if it is decided the rules for the meeting do not allow a motion from the floor, rather requiring a proposer and seconder from the Executive Board itself.

Cllr Marc Jones, leader of the Plaid Cymru group in Wrexham said: “We were informed by email at 5:30pm tonight that the Executive Board wanted to discuss tomorrow’s motion in secret. There is no justification for this – the details of the contract with Kingdom are already in the public domain and have been examined in detail by scrutiny committees that were open to the public.

“Let’s be clear, this flies in the face of the huge public interest in this contrast. Each year 6,500 people are fined by Kingdom in Wrexham and they and others have every right to hear our argument about why the contract should be ended as soon as possible.

“It’s up to the 10 members of the Executive Board to decide but we will challenge any attempt to hear this behind closed doors.”

The Executive Board meeting starts at 10am, and will be webcast. We of course will be providing our usual live reports from the chamber for as long as allowed, and will be going fully equipped.

In Guildhall chamber for full council – we feel this could be an Irn Bru & Popcorn meeting… pic.twitter.com/NCqVIXTHwI

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) February 22, 2017