Walk Around Wales

Dear DS Peach

Thank you for taking the time to consider this report of potential election offences.

As an overview I would suggest that the Facebook Group, Glynneath News and Views Unbiased Edition is a politically subversive organisation masquerading as a neutral observer in the Glynneath by-election of 29 July 2021. They are attempting to appear neutral, however from the historical incidents in one particular political subject, there is evidence of a clear intention to influence the public and incite hatred amongst the residents of Glynneath without identifying the group admin (person) writing the political opinions. This methodology continues into the election process and as such I believe it undermines the election process and breaches a number of election rules and guidelines. Notably on the promotion of a candidate.

yj/77

Michael Pugh is a candidate at the Glynneath by-election. In his last post an admin on the Glynneath News and Views Unbiased Edition facebook page he has admitted a lack of integrity in setting up the page and the intended purpose for the page. I believe the actions of the Group Admin's on this page should be investigated because I believe they have been written by a political 'promoter' (either by or for Mike Pugh) and not a genuine interested 'unbiased' Group Admin as is indicated in the page's purpose.

yk/32

Glynneath News and Views Unbiased Edition - Purpose

The page purports to be non-political, this is its purpose, Its intention is written as pinned post:

"This page has been created for our businesses, services and events, and for residents, ex residents or anyone with an interest in our beautiful little town. No political or hidden agendas, let's make this a happy and unbiased page for everyone."

Clearly, its intention is to be an unbiased non-political page. In my last post on this page from 38 weeks previous to the screenshot, I can be seen to respect the page's purpose.

yj/86

Mike Pugh originally set up the page and was an admin until the evening of 4th July 2020. This is his last post announcing his leaving as a group admin because of the election.

Glynneath news and views unbiased edition
4 July at 21.42

For those that don’t know and in the interests of honesty.
I’ve been accused of having an agenda when setting up this page, being honest, I did. After seeing all the lies and bullying (in my opinion) on a similar page, and them banning anyone who dared to have a different opinion or asked them to evidence their claims, I decided to set this page up. The purpose of this page was to encourage debate and not block anyone for disagreeing or having a differing viewpoint.
I left as an admin on the group when I became Clerk to the Council a few years ago. I recently came back as admin to support residents in regard to the footpath that was reinstated in the Welfare Park after more than 40 years of no use, an act that I believe was only done with malicious intent and to cause maximum damage to a disabled person.
However, I have decided to run for council in the Central Ward bi-election on 29th of July. With that in mind, I will leave as admin on this page immediately. I feel that councillors, and those running for council, shouldn’t try to influence residents by having control of a page such as this, it could easily be a conflict of interests. That’s just my personal opinion though and each to their own, as I am aware of others that do.
So, to those that have been accusing of my actions, you now know who I am, why I set the page up and my intentions moving forward. Please do not hesitate to message me if you’d like me to clarify anything, or if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Michael Pugh

I refer to the following quotes taken from the above post:

"I’ve been accused of having an agenda when setting up this page, being honest, I did."

" I recently came back as admin to support residents in regard to the footpath that was reinstated in the Welfare Park after more than 40 years of no use, an act that I believe was only done with malicious intent and to cause maximum damage to a disabled person."

The 'path' subject is an attempt to overturn a Welsh Government decision to reinstate a public path blocked by a resident, the target of Mike Pugh's political agenda is the Glynneath Junior Tennis Club.

yj/85		If we refer to a previous post on the 'path' subject dated 24 June at 14.45 (not to be confused with a post on the same date at 21.12) we will see political motivation in the post which is most likely by Mike Pugh. (reference last admin post) "We’ve seen a few posts over last couple of days regarding the newly reinstalled footpath that runs from the play park area of the Welfare, behind the tennis courts and onto Earlsfield Close. The footpath had not been in use for around 40 years, after checking with a few previous clerks, there has never been even a single request for it to be reinstalled. The path being reinstalled has cut through the driveway of a residential house, the owner of the house is disabled and obviously needs unhindered access to the driveway. The footpath being reinstalled was requested by and pushed forward by Cllr John Evans and members Glynneath Junior Tennis administration team, at a cost of several thousand pounds. Unfortunately, Glynneath residents were not approached for their opinions on its requirement or if residents felt their taxes would be well spent to reinstate the footpath, especially considering other areas that many feel require more immediate attention. So, what’re the actual opinions of Glynneath residents? Are you happy to have paid many £1000s for this? And, do you feel it right that a Town Councillor spent around 2 years of his time focussing on this and not investigating the wishes of all residents, not just the 3 or 4 he seemed to represent? Update. After receiving confirmation from NPTCBC, I can confirm that two Glynneath councillors supported the footpath and ignored the residents pleas to consider their position. The councillors were Cllr John Evans and Cllr Jennifer Roberts, I hope residents take this into consideration when the next election is held. I will publish the paperwork for the decision in the coming days. The path wasn’t a public right of way, just an historic path that hadn’t bern used for over 40 years, which is why the petition was refused by Neath County Council. So the residents could have taken ownership as they’d maintained it for so long, but they didn’t realise they needed to. This shows a higher level of vindictiveness than we all first thought, these individuals made a path that no one wanted and hadn’t been used in over four decades, a public right of way, simply to cause emotional stress to residents living there, part of the Glynneath community. Personally, I feel that the councillors who supported this should show some integrity and resign." If we refer you to part of the last paragraph which states. "This shows a higher level of vindictiveness than we all first thought, these individuals made a path that no one wanted and hadn’t been used in over four decades, a public right of way, simply to cause emotional stress to residents living there, part of the Glynneath community." We see here that the group admin without naming themselves are making an unfounded, political statement that potentially incites hatred against the Glynneath Junior Tennis club. There are over 200 comments on this post, the majority offering support to the unnamed admin, the following 4 posts should be of interest. The first gives an idea of the strength of feeling being generated by the admin. 2 & 3 are inferring violence towards the tennis club, with the purpose of comment 4 by the Group Admin identifying targets to the potentially violent member.
68		Carl Williams - Absolutely disgusting...they should hold there head in shame..what an absolute bunch of arseholes...this is clearly just a game to some people...the family who live there are lovely and don't do no harm to anyone...but unfortunately we keep hearing about the tennis courts and its cronnies!!!
67		Jonny Harris - The dickhead brigade strike again. How they get away with what they have for so long is ridiculous. I long for the day when someone actually puts them in their place and don’t keep bowing down to them!
65		Jonny Harris to Ruth Knoyle - good hiding they need but we can’t condone that.
64		Group Admin to Jonny Harris - I remember a clerk telling me, junior tennis and Cllr Evans I believe.
		The last post is potentially Mike Pugh acting as an admin on the site (he is a former clerk to the Glynneath Town Council and this Group Admin regularly quotes 'former Glynneath Town Council Clerks.) pointing Jonny Harris who is showing a tendency towards violence to the Glynneath Junior Tennis club and a 66 year old councillor, John Evans.

Video post:

Dai Richards, one of the candidates for this months Glynneath Central Ward By-Election, made this video to highlight, what he believes to be, corruption in the Council.
Although GTC and NPTCBC strongly deny the accusations. Dai maintains that two Glynneath Town Councillors and members of NPT County Council have been dishonest and corrupt in the planning application for a local housing project.

I believe a digitally stored video to have been released to the Glynneath News and Views Unbiased Edition by a serving councillor of NPTC with a view to discrediting my election campaign. The video post as such should be highlighted as a 'promotion' for Mike Pugh because the post is clearly by a 'promoter' of Mike Pugh or potentially a scheduled post made by Mike Pugh prior to his leaving group admin status, its intention is to discredit me.

dai intro

I attempted to counter the negative effect of this post by introducing myself in a positive unbiased post:

Hi all, my name is Dai Richards and you will have seen me in this video, thank you for watching and thanks for all your comments. I wish Mike Pugh all the best in the election on the 29th July, I've never met Mike, but I'm sure he'll do a great job. If you want to know more about me you can visit my website. www.dai-richards.wales - I'm happy to answer any questions about this video or any issues relating to Glynneath if you'd care to ask them. Thanks again - Dai

		Shortly after this post I was private messaged and tagged in another post by the group's admin. If we refer to the questions, 50% of which relation to the 'path' political subject it must be considered that this is a 'promotional' post. If we look at the extremely poor grammar of the post I would suggest that potentially the questions were quickly thought up and potentially have come to the group admin potentially via a private message from Mike Pugh who was active on-line at the time.
yj/83		With the By - election looming I decided to ask both candidates the same questions Dai Richards and Mike Pugh Theses are the questions What would you like to bring in Glynneath? What would you change in Glynneath? What’s your views on the topic everyone is talking about at present the tennis courts and the bullying that has been going on? What is your views on the walkway and gate between Earlsfeild Court and the Welfare Park? I will get back with their responses
		I answered one of the questions requesting information about the admin Thanks for inviting me to answer some questions, I'll be happy to do this. I'll start by answering number 2 first. The first thing I'd like to change in Glynneath is people acting anonymously. For example the question asked here is "With the By - election looming I decided to ask both candidates the same questions". I want to know who 'I' is? I've briefly looked at the posts relating to the walkway between Earlsfield and the park and I see a lot of anonymous posts. The point of social media is personal interaction, so lets act personally please, who is 'I', who is asking the questions? I believe that as a councillor I will represent the people and not my personal opinions so I'm going to take time out to canvas the opinions of the people of the Central Ward before giving my answers to the others, Thanks again for inviting me to answer questions. - Dai Richards
		Later on the questions were rephrased in comments by Helen Hansen Williams which I answered and when I'd completed answering those, the secondary questions which appeared as comments by Helen Hansen Williams were removed so it looked like I had answered the original questions by the Group's Admin.
		After this I have made several attempt to identify the personnel involved in the posts relating to myself, however the groups admin's, of which there were 2 at the time of asking, have refused to identify themselves.

Background to the video: Neath-Port Talbot Council are covering up malpractice which has potentially unlawfully killed Glynneath residents. (case no. 2100132983) (Further information: http://www.walk-around-wales.com/county/npt/glynneath/enzo-development/enzo-home.htm .

During a planning meeting on 8 September 2020 Councillor Dennis Keogh berated the Glynneath resident supporting local interest, Dai Richards without just cause. Rugby Relics Ltd released a satirical video during October 2020 to offer Dennis Keogh the opportunity to explain himself. The video was only made available to NPTC councillors on the planning committee who shared it via What's App and Facebook Messenger (source YouTube Analytics).

The representation by Councillor Keogh can be seen more clearly on the NPTC YouTube channel

Councillor Keogh - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7LwpVlT4q4&t=6347s

2.12.40 on this video - berated me unnecessarily. If you are interested to know why he did this, I can explain

social media imprints

& promoter

The promoter is the person who has caused the material to be published. If the promoter is acting on behalf of a group or organisation, the group or organisation’s name and address must also be included. You can use either home or office addresses

YouTube - Glynneath Contamination playlist

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgZICAvXkAMuWdc-mlXvAE3gWErDt88ZH