Caerphilly council ‘puts democracy on hold’ for more than five weeks
Martin Shipton
Caerphilly council’s chief executive has made the surprising decision that all meetings of the authority and its committees held in public should be suspended until after the Caerphilly Senedd by-election on October 23.
The move is unprecedented and one councillor has questioned whether it is legally necessary and said the decision has put democracy on hold.
In a message to all councillors, chief executive Ed Edmunds stated: “The Caerphilly By-Election will take place on Thursday 23 October 2025.
“The period from Thursday 18 September to the close of poll on Thursday 23 October is referred to as the ‘Pre-Election Period’.
“This means there are a range of restrictions and other considerations that we must observe during this period and I have attached the guidance once again for completeness.
“I have taken the decision as Proper Officer to postpone the following public meetings at the Council until such time as the Pre-Election Period ends.
“These meetings will now need to be rearranged and Democratic Services colleagues will be working through the options with the relevant Committee Chairs:
“23/09 – Corporate & Regeneration Scrutiny
24/09 – Joint Scrutiny
25/09 – Voluntary Sector Liaison Committee
30/09 – Council
02/10 – Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal Crumlin Arm Working Group
07/10 – Governance & Audit Committee
08/10 – Planning Committee
14/10 – Education and Social Services Scrutiny Committee
15/10 – Cabinet and BMI trustees
22/10 – Joint-scrutiny
“Meetings outside of the list above that are either exempt from the Press and Public or deemed business as usual will continue as scheduled.”
Official guidance
However, the official guidance for elected members and employees appears to contradict Mr Edmunds’ ruling.
It states: “The period between Thursday 18 September and the close of poll on Thursday 23 October is referred to as ‘the pre-election period’. This protocol will apply during this time.
“This is a period of heightened sensitivity and one where there are restrictions placed upon how public bodies (including this council) should act and behave in order not to unfairly influence the electorate prior to the poll, and to be above any criticism of bias.
“The normal and scheduled operational business of the council will continue throughout the election period uninterrupted.
“The reasoning for restrictions during the election period is not to prevent the council carrying out its normal business, but to prevent any council business during the period being used to secure electoral advantage.
“Normal and scheduled council business can and must continue during an election period. This includes publicity around normal council business and events.
“The council and our workforce should take care to ensure that publicity and council activities cannot be perceived as seeking to influence public opinion on contentious national subjects or to promote the public image of a candidate or their party.”
‘No prohibition’
However, it states: “There is no prohibition on conducting normal Council business or decision making during the pre-election period.
“You will need to be careful to avoid the allegation that a report appears to support/promote or counter/undermine the views of any candidate or political party. Likewise, reports should avoid issues on which a candidate is actively campaigning. “
Cllr Nigel Dix, who leads the council’s Independent group, said: “I am very concerned about this. The council has business to discuss and it seems very odd to put democracy on hold like this.
“I’ve been a councillor for 20 years and I have never heard of anything like this before. I’m not aware of the legal justification for this.”
A CCBC spokesman said, “The Chief Executive, as Returning Officer for the forthcoming by-election, has asked that a number of scheduled meetings be postponed until after the by-election on 23 October.The council will enter into a 5 week ‘pre-election period’ from Thursday 18 September when a range of restrictions and other considerations must be observed.
“The reasoning for these restrictions is not to prevent the council carrying out its normal business, but to prevent any council business during the period being used to secure electoral advantage.”
A spokesperson for the Senedd confirmed that its plenary and committee meetings would continue to be held as normal between now and the by-election, which is being held following the sudden death of Labour MS Hefin David in August.
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Cyngor Bwrdeistref Sirol Caerffili. Please feel free to put democracy on hold for five weeks for the greater good to end the prospect of it being put on hold for many years to come by a Dic Sion Dafydd who thinks it is called CAERPILLY.
It’s just over a month, it’s not a big deal. He probably thinks that the political campaigning is hindering council business so it’s better to delay until after the election.
All parties should be grateful of the delay so that they can knock on more doors and convince voters. I suspect the independent councilors are upset because they won’t get expenses.
Seeing you are throwing aspersions around i’ll chuck some of my own around – like the CEO has been told by the council’s controlling labour group that council meetings should take place behind closed doors in the desperate hope it might help the labour candidate’s chances in the forthcoming by-election? PS. your jibe about ‘expenses’ was wrong – some council meetings will still go ahead (and councillors attending will still get expenses). Its only council meetings scheduled to take place in public which have been put on hold until after the by-election.
Don’t know how Labour runs a council but all meetings of my Plaid Cymru council are open to the public and includes live web broadcast. It’s called public accountability. There are ‘standing orders’ which allow a meeting to be closed to consider any private part of proceedings, stuff like staff disciplinaries. All other stuff is public. You shut out the public you also shut out the press. Labour are turning into a cabal akin to Kim Jong Un.
What Caerphilly democracy? There going to force segregated recycling schemes which will see pensioners struggling down steps with glass containers. That’s not democracy ie serving the people. That’s betraying them.
Paying a million a year in NDA’s, taking a hatchet to its library services and now this democratic outrage. This is a absolute basket case of a local authority and if the Welsh govt wasnt in freefall itself it would have taken Caerphilly into special measures by now
This is unprecedented. There is no need to shut down a council while a by-election takes place. You have to question the motive and most likely reason is that there are a queue of resignations and defections from Labour in the offing. Labour would rather shut down a council completely rather than them being exposed as disintegrating. A bit like when Boris Johnson prorogued the Westminster House.
Why is this even a news story – CCBC has gone into a pre-election period, so it is in Purdah, like every other local authority prior to an election?
I have worked for 3 Local Councils in past, Caerphilly one of them, the only measures we took when producing reports was to ensure impartiality, if the CEO thinks that his staff cannot produce reports that are impartial then it says more about him not the staff or public.
Let’s not forget that the Caerphilly constituency is 1 one of 2 constituencies that form the borough, Islwyn being the other constituency.
Who’s residents have no say in the Caerphilly by-election but are being denied a democratic process.