A town councillor believes that his own council's reputation has been caused 'undoubted harm' following a row over its recent budget discussions.
At Tenby Town Council's previous meeting in December, Clr. Mike Thorne had stormed out after it was decided that discussions on the budget should be held behind closed doors.
Speaking at the council's meeting last week, he said: "Other members of council will have noted the prominent coverage of our budget debates in the Tenby Observer of December 12, and have regretted, as I did, that the focus was on whether the press and public should be admitted to the debate, and not on the substance of our debate on the budget. But that, of course, is because the press was not there.
"So we ended up with a headline 'Tenby budget increase is rubber-stamped', and, within that article, the comment: 'When members came to confirm the budget, the only matter raised came from Clr. Mrs. Trisha Putwain, who asked if the council could be given a breakdown of the De Valence Trust's income and expenditure on the Youth Theatre', so as far as the press and public were concerned, the two-hour debate we had had the previous week in private had never happened, and we 'rubber-stamped' the budget presented to us by the town clerk. That is how it appeared," explained Clr. Thorne.
"That does not reflect well on the council, and I trust that members will reflect and consider as to whether the alleged benefits of debating the budget in private justify and outweigh the undoubted harm caused to the council's reputation."