Labour AM Jeff Cuthbert and Caerphilly Labour Councillors today welcomed five forced U-turns by the Plaid Cymru leadership of Caerphilly County Borough Council and condemned Plaid for a catalogue of bad decisions made during their last three years in charge.
Jeff Cuthbert AM said “If they do anymore U-turns, someone is going to have to issue them with a ticket. Although I’m glad public pressure has made them reverse their plans, Plaid leaders are like straws in the wind: blown about by a need for electoral popularity ahead of the Assembly elections.”
Pressure from residents and Labour in Caerphilly has embarrassed Plaid into the following U-turns:
- A double U turn on the opening of a brand new English-medium primary school in Rhydri-the current building is the least fit for purpose school in the county.
- An abandoned decision to close Customer First Cash Offices across the county borough.
- Dropped plans to open a waste transfer station at Trehir in Caerphilly at a huge cost of £6 million.
- Temporary suspension of the decision to charge for park-and-ride at railway stations.
In addition, Jeff pointed out that Plaid have chosen to stand by an array of bad decisions including:
- Pushing ahead with the Bedwas colliery development, despite the potential for escalating costs and unanswered questions about the scale of the project on a site of contaminated land.
- Turning off street lighting following a flawed process of consultation.
- The closure of Ty Darren residential home in Risca in the face of public opposition which raises questions about other care homes in the county borough.
- Sending all of the county borough’s food waste to a site that is creating terrible odour problems for residents in Caerphilly.
Jeff added “Plaid don’t want residents to talk about these issues and they are instead using the Council to print endless press releases promoting their two Assembly candidates, Lindsay Whittle and Ron Davies. Yet these two Plaid councillors are responsible for the U-turns and bad decisions over the past three years.”
Labour Councillor Hefin David supported Jeff’s view and said, “It has been a difficult time for the people of Caerphilly during Plaid rule, made worse by their U-turns and bad decisions. We have been able to make the ruling group reverse some decisions. I would be concerned for the future should these Plaid leaders gain more power in the Welsh Assembly.”
