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Barred Assembly Member to discover his fate

Published date: 06 July 2011 |
Published by: Staff reporter

 

WREXHAM Council’s former leader should find out later today whether he can take up his seat in the Welsh Assembly.


Cllr Aled Roberts, who is still a councillor for Ponciau, won the North Wales regional seat for the Liberal Democrats at May’s election but he was excluded from the chamber after officials discovered that at the time of his election he was still a member of the Valuation Tribunal for Wales, which is not allowed under the rules.


Fellow Liberal Democrat John Dixon was also barred from taking up his South Central Wales seat after finding himself in a similar situation over his membership of the Care Council for Wales.


Since then Cllr Roberts has been awaiting the findings of a probe by the Assembly’s Commissioner for Standards, Gerard Elias QC, which has now been completed, leaving AMs free to vote on a Liberal Democrat motion to have the pair reinstated.


The report says Cllr Roberts “did everything that he could have reasonably been expected to do in ensuring that he was not a disqualified person for the purpose of nomination or election to the National Assembly”.


Earlier this week Cllr Roberts told the Leader that while he had not seen the report at that stage, he believed it broadly confirmed what he had been saying.
“The information, which came from the Electoral Commission and was passed on by the returning officers, referred to the 2006 rules about the tribunal rather than the 2010 rules, which had changed,” he said.


A spokesman for the National Assembly for Wales, the Welsh Liberal Democrats and Cllr Roberts, confirmed the vote will take place later today, but Cllr Roberts did not wish to comment further ahead of the vote.


UKIP MEP for Wales, John Bufton, reported the two men to the police for alleged electoral fraud, but South Wales Police recently told them no charges would be brought against them.

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  1. Posted by: kevinweston at 10:15 on 06 July 2011 Report

    Another farce for Theatre Clwyd. Mr Roberts may survive because the Welsh was out of date. Mr Dixon is out because the English is up to date. How much of our money has been wasted?

  2. Posted by: a cahill at 11:19 on 06 July 2011 Report

    Doesn't say a lot for Nick Clegg's promise to clean up politics...when his own party can't ensure candidates are above board and fit to stand for public office...otherwise his reinstatement won't have any effect on the general public

  3. Posted by: InMyOpinion at 12:02 on 06 July 2011 Report

    Had his name been on the balot paper, he would not have enough votes to cover a fag paper, his lack of popularity is proof that he like most other politicians is another rip off riding the senedd gravy train. £47K for doing nothing part time showed him crime does pay.

  4. Posted by: Democracy at 12:55 on 06 July 2011 Report

    If his name had been on the list ballot paper then he would have got more votes. It was no secret that he was standing on the Lib Dem list and I had more election leaflets with his name & photo through my door than what I had for the constituency candidate. I know people who hate the Lib Dems with a passion, yet still voted for them because of Aled Roberts. He must have done something right somewhere along the line.

  5. Posted by: Democracy at 12:57 on 06 July 2011 Report

    To say that he was only working "part-time" for £47000 is a very serious accusation. Do you have any proof that this is how he viewed his role as Leader of Wrexham Council?

  6. Posted by: Ste-Roid at 14:48 on 06 July 2011 Report

    All government employees are corrupt, they moan about not having enough money to fix pot holes, roads, community parks etc, its about time they earnt wages that reflect the work they do!

  7. Posted by: InMyOpinion at 14:58 on 06 July 2011 Report

    Democracy: hi, yes . it was puublished here on the leader site, in the western mail and Wales online (part of the daily post), but so is the new leader...and most other council leaders in the UK, the last leader (Shan Wilkinson) refused to take the increase as she stated its only a part time jjob, and aled was also working part time as a solicitor for quite a while. he might be liked in his kneck of the woods by some, but his view of democracy leaves a lot to be desired.

  8. Posted by: InMyOpinion at 15:07 on 06 July 2011 Report

    The People of Wrexham were asking Aled to give us a referendum on city status this time last year after his casting vote clossed a disabled centre that was vital for children and family respite, the saving was £20K. Our request was refused, and in the end the excuse was "its too late to hold a referendum". cost of applying for city status ? £20K approx.

  9. Posted by: InMyOpinion at 15:17 on 06 July 2011 Report

    And then there's the dreaded cutbacks. Since Aled took control, he has cut an average £10Million each and every year, thats about £60Million and about 25% of that is earmmarked for employees wages that the council has not paid a penny on as far as we know. the roads are in a mess because they have been neglected, because of cutbacks in the past... now even more cutbacks.

  10. Posted by: InMyOpinion at 15:24 on 06 July 2011 Report

    I wrote to Aled about these cutbacks.... he continuously made reference to other councils, and sidestepped the questions completely. I asked how he could justify cutting £10Million a year from our buget, but still only worked part time as Leader with £47K p a. again he made reference to other councils...I like others are still waiting for the answers.

  11. Posted by: Ste-Roid at 15:25 on 06 July 2011 Report

    the roads are in a mess because they have been neglected, because of cutbacks in the past??? They need maintaining all year round!

  12. Posted by: InMyOpinion at 17:06 on 06 July 2011 Report

    His bar from the Senedd has now been overturned, he won the vote 30 to 20 with 3 abstentions.

  13. Posted by: tommy at 17:50 on 06 July 2011 Report

    So the thirty people who voted for him think breaking the law is an OK thing to do,and these feckin idiots are supposed to be making the laws.A superbly outstanding example of how useless the assembly is.

  14. Posted by: nomad at 20:01 on 06 July 2011 Report

    now wales will be even in bigger trouble now this crook is in, what we need is a cival war

  15. Posted by: watchdog at 22:47 on 06 July 2011 Report

    The whole episode has beena waste of time and money over a petty 'rule' which should have been sorted before the elections. Perish the thought that Eleanore Burnham of all people would have replaced Mr Roberts.

  16. Posted by: missthe point at 23:18 on 06 July 2011 Report

    Ste-roid, you said all government employees are corrupt? Even dinner ladies, caretakers, pest control officers, sports assistants, classroom assistants, environmental health officers etc? We at the front line work ruddy hard for the public. We do not make the rules. We just politely apologise for those above us that continuously get it wrong!!

  17. Posted by: kevinweston at 09:20 on 07 July 2011 Report

    The Electoral Commission has said statistics suggest nobody visited a Welsh language website site which was blamed for an AM's disqualification. Mr Roberts says he did. Which version is correct?

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