Council lights the fuse..

Well, rate payers of Manorbier, here goes your hard earned cash. Each and every Council Tax payer in the Community will soon be contributing to a very hefty legal bill, which only one Councillor had fought to avoid - in the name of common sense.

At this evening's meeting, a Solicitor from a local law firm was called in to advise the Council on a summons it has received from a marketing company in Haverfordwest. He was invited to attend, in spite of already advising the Council in writing to offer settlement to the company involved. It would appear that certain Councillors were quite sure that despite his legal training, the Solicitor had not grasped the case and was therefore incorrect in the advice that he had given. Bear in mind that not one single Councillor on Manorbier Council has practiced as a Solicitor - to question the judgement and advice of a qualified professional is indicative of the arrogance of a certain Councillor who sat at his table with a book of law in front of him... If only this particular Councillor was smart enough to accept that sometimes other people might just be correct and to concede that. Not a hope. Once a little Taxman - always a little Taxman.

The lone voice of intelligence was lost in the wilderness of arrogance and vengeance. There appears to be an intent of maliciously pursuing this, irrespective of the cost. It is not the role of the Council to throw large amounts of charge payers money - in the pursuit of shadows that are probably not in the public interest to pursue. It is certainly most unwise to act against the advice of the Solicitor. When all of this comes to a conclusion, it will be most interesting to see how the Council will be able to justify its actions to the Audit Commission.

Towards the end of the meeting, the Solicitor was asked if, after all the points and comments had been put to him by a certain Councillor (and others), his position and advice had changed. The reply was in the negative and reiterated his advice that he believed there to be a contract in place between the Council and the marketing company. When further asked if the Council were likely, in his opinion, to be successful in defending the claim - his reply was again in the negative. Despite this clear warning, the Council, in its infinite wisdom decided that it would proceed on the basis of defending the claim. There was only one Councillor to vote against this proposal - who will remain the lone voice lost in the political wilderness.

So, what could this mean to the Council Charge payers in the Community of Manorbier?

We are able to have only a guesstimate at this, but let's consider the most likely outcome.

The Solicitor was asked to give the Council an idea of the likely costs for defending this action. His reply was in the region of £3,000 - for his costs alone. If the case is heard in a Small Claims Court, the Council would not have to reimburse the Claimants costs if it loses. However, due to the complexity of the case, at the initial hearing, the judge could decide to put the case into the Multi Track. If this were to be the case, the Claimant would be able to recover her legal costs from the Council - in the event of her case being successful, which in the opinion of the Solicitor, was a likely outcome. Great.

If we were to presume that the case was allocated to the Multi Track, we presume that the legal costs were to be similar for both sides and we further presume that Manorbier Council were unsuccessful in defending the case - as advised by the Solicitor, there is a potential financial risk to the Council to the tune of £6,000 in legal costs alone. Further more, there is the amount of the claim itself - a couple of motorway service cups of coffee short of £5,000.

So, adding the potential legal costs and the claim itself, we are looking in the region of about £11,000, if defense were to be unsuccessful. This figure may well turn out to be conservative. But for the sake of presuming the above figures are there or thereabouts, the Council could be looking at losing a total of £11,000.

But what does this mean to the Council Charge payers of Manorbier? Well, if one considers that there are less than 600 houses in the Community - and some of them are only used as holiday homes, one has to consider a figure of about 550 to be realistic. So, if £11,000 were to be lost in this action, it would be the equivalent of every single household in the Community having to pay £20 each. To some people that may not seem an awful lot of money - to most of us, one would rather save £20 than throw it away.

In reading, one can only try to understand the futile mentality of the Councillor's who are supposed to represent the Community as a whole. This course of action seems to be being pursued not for the good of the Charge payers but for the gratification of one Councillor in particular. If this were to emerge in the course of time as being confirmed and with every Charge Payer in the Community picking up the bill, how long can it be before said Councillor has fallen off the bottom of everyone's Christmas card list...?? Either that, or being thrown into the hole that he has dug and landing in his own little Community of obscurity.