Tonyrefail Councillor and Cabinet Member spurned by Labour party
Well the Labour party end of year clear-out seems to be gathering pace and spreading across South Wales.
Last week we heard of Labour Councillors in Cardiff and Bridgend being deselected, in the latter case leading to others resigning and the party losing control of Maesteg Town Council. Now the discord in the party appears to have spread to RCT.
Apparently current Cabinet Member for Education Eudine Hanagan has been deselected by the local party. Cllr Hanagan has been an elected representative there for some considerable time and has sometimes hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. For instance when her son, Christian, was promoted and given a substantial pay rise to a job which had not been advertised and which he had not been through a fair selection or interview process for.
The removal of Mrs Hanagan will be met with mixed feelings by some – relief that she has been deselected, but regret that it has not been done previously.
Chair of RCT Welsh Liberal Democrats Karen Roberts says
"She is regarded with nothing short of hatred by any number of people in the Rhondda having presided over the plans to rip apart our secondary schools and create through schools.
"This was done despite considerable protest from many of us in the affected schools and with no satisfactory answers to the many questions posed. The fact that the plans protected the sixth form in her own school of Tonyrefail and also gave her the second brand new school in her ward added insult to injury.
"She has demonstrated an arrogance which typifies all that is worst in the Labour party locally. When residents in Penrhiwfer were concerned about the building of the new Williamstown school there she refused to meet with them. She would not meet with concerned parents over the Rhondda schools reorganization.
"I for one will certainly not be sorry to see her go. I only hope that residents in Tonyrefail will not be taken in by promises that a new Labour face will serve them any better than she
