Oh no it isn't!

A couple of Thursdays ago readers of Cllr John Oddy's blog will remember that he told them about a special meeting the Town council was holding on the following Monday to debate the regeneration issues for Colwyn Bay.  Of course, a lot's happened since then, but there's been a surprising and worrying outcome.

Things started to get nasty after Cllr Oddy had asked folk to submit questions through himself for the meeting.  One lady did, so he asked her question, which was whether Landlords in Colwyn Bay were being offered free refurbishments if they then took-in people on the homeless list.  Immediately, Cllr Chris Perry accused Cllr Oddy of asking the question on behalf of another councillor, Councillor Dave Maratos and yet - oddly - was not brought to order by the Mayor, despite the allegation being totally unfounded.

After Cllr Oddy left the town hall, things apparently deteriorated, with Cllr Perry accusing Cllr Maratos  of being a trouble causer and of spreading unfounded rumours about properties being demolished in Colwyn Bay.  Now this last bit is important and it's where things become murky and muddy. Like a Shakespearean tragedy, the plot unfolds, with twists and convolutions and - rather like a badly written panto - the Panto Villain emerges, no other than our old friend Cllr Chris Hughes.

So what was the truth behind the wild accusations made by Cllr Perry?

In fact, Councillor Maratos HAD told people he believed some unnamed properties were to be demolished BUT he was merely repeating what County Councillor Bob Squires had said in the Weekly News. However, Cllr Maratos claims he was contacted by County Councillor Chris Hughes who told him to stop relaying the story because it wasn’t true and that Bob Squires had never said such a thing to the Weekly News or the Pioneer and that he, (Bob Squires) had received an apology from the Weekly News over his comments (essentially untrue, but more on that one later). According to Cllr Maratos, Cllr Hughes then waged a campaign to undermine Cllr Maratos' standing in the community by spreading rumours that Cllr Maratos didn’t know what he was talking about and was  - to use Cllr Hughes’s words - just 'scaremongering'. This had the desired effect of turning public opinion against Cllr Maratos, who then found himself and his family subject to harassment from local residents including eggs being thrown at his windows, dog dirt being left on his doorstep and malicious texts being sent to him.

The upshot of this orchestrated campaign of vilification was that Cllr Maratos resigned as a councillor on the following day, citing fears for his families' safety.

So what are the facts? Was Cllr Maratos merely repeating what Bob Squires had publicly stated or not? It's important, because of what Cllr Hughes had said.

This is what the NWWN printed:

“There is a master plan being discussed as part of the regeneration and it will be include major proposals for demolition for some of these properties. Conwy County Council will resist future bedsits, the policy will be dead against it. We will formally resist houses of multiple accommodation, and reduce them and therefore some of the undesirable types that live there.”

And here's the 'apology' which Cllr Hughes used to berate Cllr Maratos:

*On the Letters Page of last week’s Weekly News we ran a headline saying "Councillor’s ‘underclass’ comments spur debate".
This implied Cllr Bob Squire had used the term in relation to people in Colwyn Bay. This was not the case, and Mr Squire has not used this term in the past. The term ‘benefits underclass’ was actually from a report from the Welsh Assembly.
We are happy to clear up any misunderstanding this may have caused.

So nothing about the comments regarding demolition, then.   Which means that not only were those comments accurate, but that Cllr Hughes was (surprise, surprise) wrong when he claimed that Cllr Maratos was 'scaremongering' and 'didn't know what he was talking about'.  In fact, the Cllr who doesn't appear to know what he's talking about is Cllr Hughes - or does he?

 Councillor Maratos appears to have been completely in the right, merely repeating what the NWWN had already printed and deserves  an apology from the Cllrs concerned. That neither the  Council nor Councillor Chris Hughes want it further publicised is a different matter entirely and -  if what Councillor Maratos alleges is true, and we have no reason to doubt him as Cllr Oddy is in receipt of some emails sent out by Cllr Hughes - there is most certainly a case for the Standards Board to investigate the actions perpetrated by Councillor Hughes who, for too long now, seems to be getting away with some very dubious behavior.