Help or leave, councillors urged

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Councillors who are not prepared to help Anglesey's "recovery" have been urged to consider leaving.

Council leader Clive McGregor spoke in response to a letter by the council's managing director, David Bowles.

Mr Bowles had accused some councillors of using him "as the meat in the middle of a sandwich of personality-driven in-fighting."

Local Government Minister Carl Sargeant told the BBC1 Politics Show Wales he would not tolerate more bad behaviour.

Mr Bowles was brought in to run the authority following a highly critical corporate governance inspection.

Mr McGregor said: "If there are councillors here in Anglesey who are not prepared to knuckle down and assist in the recovery - that's what it is, we need to recover our position - then they perhaps should consider their future."

If there are councillors here in Anglesey who are not prepared to knuckle down and assist in the recovery...then they perhaps should consider their future Clive McGregor, leader, Anglesey council

On the same programme, Mr Sargeant, who took up the local government minister's role last month, said: "I will not tolerate this behaviour.

"We have a council to run in Anglesey... to deliver public services at a very difficult time in the economy."

Mr Bowles's letter relates to questions over his previous living arrangements.

In it, Mr Bowles explained that he arranged to rent a property which he later discovered was let by former councillor and officer John Arthur Jones.

He said he made the council's leader aware of the arrangement "and subsequently had reasons to be concerned about issues relating to the planning permissions for the site and restricting lettings for holidays only".

He says he clarified the matter with two senior council officers, and later vacated the property.

In his letter, Mr Bowles said: "I would contrast the very open way in which I have handled this matter with those who go behind your back to stir things up, who do not even have the moral fibre to come and raise any issues of concern directly with me: instead they indulge in malicious tittle-tattle behind the scenes."

The letter concluded: "I did consider marking this letter private and confidential but decided against it on the basis that it would get leaked anyway."

Mr Bowles later said it was "regrettable" he had to write to councillors "in these terms, but it is not something I have done lightly".