Council confirms new committee balance following Plaid Cymru by‑election

Dale Spridgeon, Local Democracy Reporter

A county council has agreed to change the political make-up of its committees following a by-election triggered by the sudden death of a Plaid Cymru councillor.

Anglesey County Council unanimously approved recommendations to assign unallocated seats to three non-affiliated members as part of a review of its arrangements.

It follows a reduction in the number of Plaid Cymru members and an increase in non-affiliated members.

There are now 18 Plaid Cymru members (a reduction of one), seven Anglesey Independents, four Y Grŵp Annibynnol, three Welsh Labour and three unaffiliated members (increase by one) – totalling 35, a report said.

The council usually reviews it political balance every year.  However, the council’s political group leaders had agreed to wait until after the Bro’r Llynnoedd by-election on July 30.

This was triggered by the sudden death of Plaid Cymru Cllr Keith Taylor and won by his grandson, also for Plaid, Cllr Jon Paul Taylor.

A council spokesperson said the political balance report had been delayed “in case more changes would be needed”.

Changes to the Plaid Cymru group membership had occurred at the end of May, when one member, Cllr Llio Owen had left to become an independent, non-affiliated member.

For political balance, Cllr Celfyn Furlong was also considered unaffiliated, even though he was a Reform councillor.

“This is because you need at least two members to form a political group on the Council,” a spokesman said.

Cllr Doug Fowlie was the third unaffiliated member.

A report had stated that “committee seats are for political groups,  there is no specific right for unaffiliated members to have any seat, apart from on the county council itself”.

It was only “if there is no objection from the county council, it is possible to assign unallocated seats to those members”.

They added: “If any member of the county council opposes the principle of assigning unallocated seats to the three unaffiliated members, the seats will remain unallocated.”

At a short extraordinary meeting yesterday (Thursday, August 13) to review the situation, council leader Gary Pritchard read out the recommendation.

They included that the council agree to confirm its political balance arrangements for allocating committee seats, and that unallocated seats could be allocated between the three unaffiliated members.

It also agreed that group leaders advise the Head of Democracy as soon as possible of any changes to group membership on committees.

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