Councillors walk out amid row over town council governance

Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter

A simmering row on a local council has resulted in five councillors walking out of its most recent meeting.

The councillors, who include those elected as Labour councillors and independents, walked out of Caldicot Town Council’s Wednesday, October 29 meeting.

They claim there has been a breakdown in the proper running of the authority and an ongoing employment dispute has cost taxpayers around £50,000.

The dispute among the councillors is understood to have originated with the appointment of council clerk Mark Tredwin in September 2024, initially on a probationary period, before being confirmed as a permanent appointment earlier this year.

Mr Tredwin’s permanent appointment was confirmed after the five councillors had forced an extraordinary meeting of the council in February.

The issue has resulted in a falling out on the 16 member council with complaints lodged against the clerk who is understood to have the support of a majority of councillors.

The five councillors who walked out of the October meeting have previously sought to raise complaints with Monmouthshire County Council, which has some responsibility for standards on town and community councils in the area, as well as One Voice Wales the umbrella body for community councils.

But they say their complaints have been thwarted as they’ve been told there are no procedures for dealing with the complaints they’ve raised, while One Voice Wales told them it is unable to deal with complaints other than from council leaders or clerks.

They also say complaints to Senedd Members and Monmouthshire MP Catherine Fookes haven’t led to any further action.

Tony Easson, who represents the Dewstow ward on both the town council and Monmouthshire Council, and is one of the five who walked out of the October meeting said: “It is time that the public in Caldicot began to receive accountability from their elected town councillors. That accountability is missing at present.”

The complaints include that a staff member allegedly has been blocked from returning to work following a period of absence due to sickness and personnel matters within the council as well as relationships between the clerk and the disaffected councillors.

They also claim meetings either haven’t been run or minuted properly and in some cases not called.

Mr Tredwin was contacted on behalf of Caldicot Town Council but said he wouldn’t respond to questions until all members had had a chance to discuss the issue. He did say that the “integrity and governance of the council has and will continue to be one of my primary concerns.”

Cllr Easson was suspended from the Labour group on Monmouthshire County Council in September and is now an independent socialist while the four other Caldicot councillors to walk out of the October meeting are Labour’s Jill Bond, Amanda Lewis and independents Rachel Grumach and John Woodfield. Labour’s Robert Wilsher has supported the five but was away at the time of the October meeting.