(Never say an old dog is past learning new tricks. You'll find I'm now able to show you actual clips of Twitter feeds etc thanks to mastering how to do screenshots. I hope you'll find my articles slightly more readable and interesting as a result. Apologies some of the data on Council attendance records is difficult to read. A tip - right click on the table concerned. Then click View Image. When that comes up if it's still not big enough for you, get your cursor on the image, hold down "Ctrl" on your keyboard and press the "+" key a couple of times. See - I was taught that this week as well.)
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The news that Rob James will be standing down as Labour councillor for Bryncoch South next year has caused some comment on the Neath Ferret. Rob was elected in May 2012 along with Janice Dudley who represents Plaid Cymru.
There was a four person fight for the two seats in the ward which panned out as follows:
Rob James 856 votes (E), Janice Dudley 825 votes (E), Tony Wyn-Jones (PC) 744 votes, Andrew Jenkins (Labour) 703 votes.
Andrew Jenkins went on to be elected as a councillor representing Neath South, as most readers will know.
What is clear is that there's everything to play for between Labour and Plaid in this Bryncoch South ward come 2017. Those seats could go anywhere on the basis of the last split. The people living there can look forward to being promised the earth and sucked up to in a really big way for the next six months. A cynic like me would say that's no different to the last election then.
Anyway, back to Rob. When Rob was campaigning for the seat people remember him working in the local Tesco Express store in Waunceirch. What better credentials for a candidate. A local boy by all accounts, who worked locally as well. Young, well educated, politically ambitious and keen to better himself. Rob and Labour played heavily on his youth and local connections. When elected, he became the youngest councillor in NPT Council.
Like all well organised people, Rob has his CV on Linkedin, but curiously I can't find reference to his work at Tesco, which is a pity because for many of our politicians, experience in the harsh, unforgiving world of the private sector is as rare as rocking horse poo. I'd put it on if I was him. It's nothing to be ashamed of. It's the kind of work these days where many of his constituents struggle to earn a crust. He does, however, list his time spent with Tracscare, a private concern who are involved in the care and rehabilitation of brain damaged individuals (see below).
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cllrrobjames
What Linkedin does reveal is a man who has the ability to juggle a number of balls at the same time. Because he was a Research and Press Officer in the National Assembly, Cardiff from September 2010 to January 2012, whilst he was also a Service Manager with Tracscare in Swansea from November 2009 to October 2014. Overlapping with this period of overlapping was study at Swansea University where he got an MA, Politics, with Merit, between the years 2011 – 2014. He had previously got a BA, War & Society, 2:1 at Swansea, 2007 – 2010.
We know of course he's a councillor for Bryncoch South since May 2012 to the present time. And since January 2015 he's been Constituency Manager for Geraint Davies MP at Swansea West, therefore holding down essentially the same roles as another NPT Labour councillor, Cari Morgans, who is an office manager in Stephen Kinnock's office. Join the Welsh Labour Party if you really want to get on would seem to be the message I'm getting here.
Oh, let's not forget another two while we're at it because Councillor A J Taylor sits on the Cabinet of NPT Council and his Register of Interests records that he is a researcher for Derek Vaughan, while Councillor Alex Thomas declared an interest of working as a researcher for Gwenda Thomas when she was AM. That name reminds me - Gwenda was regarded as "a close friend" by young Rob James. Here he is thanking various people who helped him in his campaign for the Bryncoch South seat.
In February 2013 Rob announced his new website he'd set up for his role as a Councillor. Call that up now, and I'm afraid it's disappeared - even before he has! This is regrettable - a large part of his history of work as a local councillor seems to be gone - "just like that" as the great Tommy Cooper used to say.
By June 2015 Rob was obviously seeking new, more exciting opportunities. I have spotted an interesting little You Tube clip (watch it before it disappears) when Rob was attempting to be a Labour Party candidate for the recent AM elections in 2016. Cynon Valley was his pitch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqI47_iq_g8
However, not two months later, in early August 2015 he was tweeting this:
Evidently not a man to let the grass grow under his feet, is he?
Anyway, history shows he was unsuccessful in both ventures but we know Rob's name is now down as a Labour candidate next year for Lliedi, Llanelli, which forms part of Carmarthenshire County Council. I wish him luck but he'll find it a different ball game down there. The Council is now run by Plaid Cymru, backed by a strong group of Independents. It looks like a safe Labour seat in Lliedi though, so that's fortunate for him.
As I last wrote about councillors' attendance at committees in NPT it would be remiss of me if I didn't refer to this before I wind up. I've got hold of Rob's attendance records (thanks to my mate again) since he was elected to Bryncoch South and to be fair to him I've got Janice Dudley's as well. Here they are - they speak for themselves. (Don't forget to click on the images like I told you).
Councillor J Dudley - Committee Attendance Records
Councillor Rob James, Committee Attendance Records
You may have picked up off Rob's Linkedin CV that he sat on various Council Committees. Just to point out that for the ones he names, his attendances (times he was there followed by % attendance) in various years are as follows:
Audit:1 - 25%, 0 - 0%;
Democratic Services: 2 - 67%, 0 - 0%;
Environment and Highways Scrutiny: 1 - 11%, 0 - 0%, 1 - 9%
Planning and Development Control: 3 - 20%, 4 - 25%
Quite a few of his other committee attendances make for no better reading either.
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I seem to recall Janice got bitten quite badly by a dog which may explain some of her poorer attendances in one of the years. But if that's the case I reckon Rob must have been savaged by a pack of hungry wolves very early on as a councillor. As an ex-school governor as well (because he's already packed that in here), Rob will know that poor attendance by a child can land both pupil and parents in extremely hot water. Just as well that the same rules don't apply to councillors, or he'd have been hauled in front of the beak some time back. As I've said before, I don't get too hung up on attendances, but when they are consistently as poor as Rob's and over such a long period, maybe it's as well he moves on to fresh pastures. The voters of Bryncoch South deserve an explanation though, don't you think? Rob should not ride off into the sunset seeking his fortune without coming clean to the electorate as to why these figures are so poor - for the period of his tenure - it's not as if he's had a bad year or two, which can happen to the best of us. Unless, of course, the Council's own figures are unreliable.
So, I guess there's not much more for me to say, and it'll shortly be adieu, adios, auf wiedersehen, and goodbye to Councillor Rob James from the people of Neath. Some in Bryncoch South would add good riddance.
If any of you should forget what Rob looks like, here's a lovely photo of him standing on the pavement outside the entrance to the Owain Glyndwr Community Centre. I'm sure this is just how many of his constituents in Bryncoch South will prefer to remember him.
(Damn it. I thought I'd be able to wind this up without a crack about the Invisible Man).
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POSTSCRIPT - the attendance records of Councillor Rob James are the perfect justification for the public to demand that NPT Council publish in full the records for ALL councillors well before the next election, not afterwards. Councillor Rob James is not the only councillor whose attendances are open to question. Obviously, life and illness get in the way of the best of us. This isn't a witch hunt - just an expectation that the voters in NPT be treated no differently from those in Swansea and Bridgend, where such information is published as a matter of course.
