South Wales Evening Post - 14 March 2007
Opposition leaders are refusing to say why they dumped councillor Ioan Richard as Swansea's next Lord Mayor.
Labour leader David Phillips and his Conservative counterpart Rene Kinzett were asked why they blocked the Mawr councillor's nomination.
Councillor Phillips stressed that his party had voted freely, but both he and Councillor Kinzett did not give a reason for voting against Councillor Richard's nomination.
Councillor Richard is Deputy Lord Mayor, and was next in line to take over from current Lord Mayor Chris Holley in May.
He has spent the past 12 months as deputy, and under council protocol was expected to take over the top job.
However, he was snubbed after failing to win enough support from fellow councillors when the vote was taken last week, with Lib Dem councillor Susan Waller winning the nomination.
Labour councillors voted against Councillor Richard and the Plaid group abstained from the vote.
Now a Labour group insider has said they did nothing wrong, and if more of Councillor Richard's own side had turned up for the vote, he would have been elected Lord Mayor.
The insider said: "For whatever reasons, the members of the Labour group did not back Councillor Richard for Lord Mayor. When he was appointed Deputy Lord Mayor, we did not support that either.
"Councillor Richard's own group knew we would not be supporting him before the vote took place. There had been plenty of discussions with the council leader.
"However, when it came to the vote, there were just 25 of us present, so it is down to the administration members not turning up. If Councillor Richard wants to know why this happened, I think he needs to look at his own side."
Councillor Richard said he put the snub down to a clash of personalities.
He said: "I want to make it clear that I have never been found guilty of anything that should have prevented me from taking up the post.
"If someone doesn't like me, then they are entitled to that opinion. But if people are insinuating that I was unfit for the role because of any other reason, then that is absolutely not true."
Councillors can be barred from the role if they have been found guilty inany civil or criminal cases, or if the local government ombudsman has found against them. However, Councillor Richard has a clean record.
Current Lord Mayor, Councillor Holley, said that a number of councillors had given assurances to support Councillor Richard and had not followed that through.
He said: "I think they need to look at their consciences and ask themselves if they have done the right thing."
However, Labour group leader David Phillips said: "I cannot speak for my colleagues and say why they voted the way they did."
Conservative group leader Rene Kinzett also voted against Councillor Richard's appointment.
He said: "Swansea councillors unanimously elected Susan Waller as Lord Mayor. Councillor Waller's exemplary service to the community has been justly rewarded by her election as first citizen of our city and county.
"The election of a Lord Mayor by his or her peers is an important tradition. The unanimous election of Councillor Waller shows the huge regard in which she is held by her fellow councillors."
Shameful Act
Related Editorial
Labour and Conservative councillors broke with protocol when they voted against Deputy Lord Mayor Ioan Richard becoming the city's next Lord Mayor.
The leaders of both political groups on the council chose to ignore our request to explain their actions.
The attempt by one Labour councillor to blame the coalition for failing to drum up enough support for Councillor Richard is a pathetic smokescreen and earns our contempt.
Shame on him, and the others involved in this spiteful episode.
