Replacement for suspended Pembrokeshire councillor announced at planning committee

Pembrokeshire County Council’s planning committee saw a fresh face at the September meeting, a “short-term” replacement for Councillor Alan Dennison who has been suspended from his post until late November.

At the start of the September 8 meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s planning committee, members heard Cllr Anji Tinley was to replace Cllr Alan Dennison on the committee “in the short term”.

Back in May, at an extraordinary meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s standards committee, Milford Haven North county councillor Alan Dennison was found to have breached the code of conduct for members, and was suspended from office for a period of four months.

However, Cllr Dennison was able to keep performing his role as a county councillor while an appeal he lodged with the Adjudication Panel for Wales against the decision was in process.

That concluded on July 28, all seven of his grounds for appeal failing.

The May committee found Cllr Dennison failed to declare personal and prejudicial interests in relation to a call by an applicant known to him, who he had lent money to and holidayed in Mexico with, to have a planning application decided by committee rather than by officers.

The May 2026 special standards meeting heard of a long string of connections between Cllr Dennison and Mr Bridges.

These included the councillor had been secretary, from 2018-2022, of the local Masonic Lodge which owned the building where the works took place, and becoming director of Imperial Hall Ltd, the applicant’s company, from 2020-2023 after providing a since-repaid loan to him.

The meeting also heard Cllr Dennison was aware of the planning history regarding the applicant, who he and his family had gone on a two-week holiday with the applicant and his family to Mexico, their connection “more than a casual acquaintanceship”.

The committee also heard the issue of a potential prejudicial interest was raised with Cllr Dennison by the council’s monitoring officer, advising him to withdraw representations at the delegation meeting due to a “perception of bias and predetermination”.

Defending himself personally, Cllr Dennison said he, as a councillor, was “driven for the benefit of the people of Pembrokeshire,” with his councillor salary donated to a dogs’ hospital charity in Sri Lanka.

The Adjudication Panel for Wales application for permission to appeal identified seven grounds of appeal, none of which Judge Meleri Tudur of the Adjudication Panel for Wales in a July 28 report considered to have a reasonable prospect of success.

Find out about planning applications that affect you by visiting the Public Notice Portal.

Cllr Dennison will not be entitled to undertake any duties as a councillor, attend meetings of the council or its committees, or represent the council in any official capacity until he resumes his duties on November 29.