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St. Florence Community Council Clerk Resigns At the meeting held on the 16th May 2005 the chairman announced that he had received a letter of resignation from Mrs Pam Davies, the Council Clerk. In her letter of resignation the Clerk informed councillors that she felt that her resignation was the only option she had as she felt that her position as legal officer for the Council was being undermined. She stated that she had arrived at this conclusion as some councillors had received her advice at best with an air of disbelief and at worst that they believed she had made it up. This had resulted in no action being taken upon the advice given. She used as an example of the last meeting when she had advised the Council that the receipt of any gifts was considered questionable and indicated that there was the possibility of their external auditor declaring such gifts as illegal. She intimated that it seemed to her that some councillors thought that she had not applied for the position in the correct manner. However, she confirmed that she had applied for the position following an advert in the Tenby Observer in 2004. The informal meeting that had been arranged by the Council had been unpleasant and Mrs Davies said she felt she had been intimidated and victimised by a number of councillors. She suggested that in hindsight she should have been accompanied by her union representative as she felt she had been backed into a corner and could never now be able to carry out her duty as Clerk to the satisfaction of certain councillors. She thanked the Council chairman, Mr Peter Rice, for all the help that he had given her and stated that in Mr Rice she felt that St Florence had a councillor with great local knowledge and a great ability to serve the community. Reference was made to the fact she did not have the minute /invoice file as they were in the possession of Councillor Hicks and that attempts by Councillor Rice to retrieve them had been unsuccessful. She advised the Council that the non-return of the documents could be a breach of the Code of Conduct and reportable to the Local Government Ombudsman. She also stated that if the documents were not returned to the Chairman with immediate effect, the police should be informed. She informed councillors that suggestions put forward at the informal meeting such as discussing planning applications and paying invoices between meetings due to time restraints should not have been carried out. In her closing statement she again thanked Mr Peter Rice who had she felt worked extremely hard during the last twelve months. The council decided to advertise for a new Clerk, it was felt that this point would be discussed at the next meeting on 13th June 2005. Website Comments The resignation of the Clerk and the reasons she gave for leaving her position raise many very serious concerns. The appointed Clerk has a duty to give advice to councillors on procedural matters regarding Council meetings. If that advice is ignored and acts fall outside if the statutory requirements of a Community Council then the responsibility and accountability rests with those who ignore such advice. Many aspects in respect of Community Council business seems to have been ignored and the informal meeting, which was held in secret, raises concerns regarding the "openness" of the Community Council. It would seem only reasonable that a full report of the meeting should now be made available for inspection by the very people of the community that these councillors are meant to serve.