Cllrs Adrian Robson and Jayne Cowan represent Rhiwbina & Pantmawr Ward on Cardiff City Council
We’ve been proud to represent Rhiwbina, described by Wikipedia as a “northern suburb of Cardiff” as independent councillors for almost ten years now. Formerly a small hamlet within the parish of Whitchurch, it has developed into a village community within a capital city which local people value because it has managed to retain aspects of its former character which they are eager to protect and preserve. That places a huge responsibility on us as local councillors, to stand up to a dysfunctional Labour council hell bent on destroying the essential fabric of communities across the city.
We have agonised for months over how best to protect the interests of the people of our community from a Labour Council which has consistently demonstrated an appetite to attack local facilities and services instead of getting to grips with finding alternative, more cost-effective, ways of delivering vital services and tackling their own failure to achieve their own savings targets.
We have concluded that, joining the Conservative Group on the Council is, by far, the best way of protecting the people of Rhiwbina and their facilities and services from the disaster which is Cardiff’s failing Labour Council.
Cardiff has a political leadership out of its depth and which presides over a divided and dysfunctional Labour Group abdicating its responsibilities by blaming everything on the Westminster government. We have had to fight Labour’s proposals to increase council tax by five per cent whilst closing local libraries, youth facilities, elderly day care centres and play centres which they claimed was the only way to balance the Council’s budget. We were delighted when Conservative colleagues joined forces with us to construct an alternative set of proposals which proved Labour wrong.
We’ve been appalled by the Labour Group and its constant infighting which is damaging our fantastic capital city. We watched with absolute amazment the debacle of a council meeting which was forced to cobble together a last minute third choice Labour budget after their initial proposal was derailed, their own amendment ruled out of order for being submitted too late and a crisis Labour Group meeting held minutes before the budget Council meeting started. Even after all that the Council saw the Leader and the Cabinet totally disintegrate requiring a two hour adjournment whilst they cobbled together a recipe which Labour councillors would support.
They completely fail to grasp the massive opportunities provided by the Cardiff “city deal” – like delivery of the South Wales metro – which, thanks to Stephen Crabb’s efforts is now on offer. Instead they continue to waste public money on unneccesary new wheelie bins, and bus lanes and writing off £5 million in loans to a cricket club.
This is not a way to run a city. Cardiff deserves better.
We’ve been extremely impressed by Cardiff North’s new Conservative MP Craig Williams and the commitment of the Conservatives to protect important local facilities and services and by the way they have worked constructively with us and showed respect for the work we have carried out on behalf of local residents. We look forward to both the 2016 Welsh Assembly elections and the Council elections in 2017 with the Conservative successes they will undoubtedly bring.