Outrageous and false statements were made to justify the decision to withdraw Labour-run Caerphilly Council from membership of the Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) group, it has been claimed.
The accusation was made by Richard Outram, Secretary of the UK/Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities, in an email to Plaid Cymru councillors in Caerphilly.
Councillor Colin Mann, Co-Deputy Leader of the Plaid Cymru group, said the letter from Richard Outram contradicts “the fairy stories we heard on the night”.
In his email Richard Outram rejects claims that the NFLA rarely met, listing full details of meetings. Media releases, newsletters and briefings were sent to the council’s representative Councillor Christine Forehead generally weekly until her recent death, he said.
“Given that these facts completely contradict the false claims made, I anticipate early contact to seek redress between the NFLA Secretariat / Manchester City Council and the Administration of Caerphilly Council at the highest level. I shall also explore my own remedies given my honour and integrity as an officer has been besmirched. I shall say no more,” added Mr Outram.
In an email to Richard Outram, Councillor Colin Mann said: “This confirms what I suspected all along, that the proposal was founded on a false premise. The report which was presented to us was very shallow to say the least. I couldn’t believe that such a poor report was presented to attempt to justify a very important decision
“As one of the people who voted to support the NFLA in the first place I was ashamed that Caerphilly County Borough Council was taking such a decision on such a poor report.
“I didn’t particularly believe much of what was said by the proponents of this move but did not have the evidence to refute the nonsense at the time.
“Thanks again for laying out the actual facts surrounding this issue, totally contradicting the fairy stories we heard on the night.”
Councillor Charlotte Bishop, leader of the Plaid Cymru group, said: “The decision to withdraw from the NFLA needs to be reviewed in light of the new and detailed information brought forward.
Councillor Greg Ead added: “The detailed facts set out by the NFLA make clear that key claims made by the administration during the debate, were simply untrue and inaccurate. While disappointing, this is unfortunately not surprising.
“This is far from the first time this administration has ignored facts in favour of local opinion or fantasy. Our residents deserve better than decisions built on fiction and I call on the leader to issue an apology on behalf of his Cabinet to the NFLA for the inaccurate claims made in the debate.”