WREXHAM Council’s former leader could not bear to listen to a vote which decided he can take up his seat in the Welsh Assembly – so he did some gardening instead.
Aled Roberts, who is still a councillor for Ponciau, won the North Wales regional seat for the Liberal Democrats at May’s election but he was excluded from the chamber after officials discovered that at the time of his election he was still a member of the Valuation Tribunal for Wales, which is not allowed under the rules.
Fellow Assembly members yesterday voted 30-20 in favour of allowing Cllr Roberts to take up the seat he won in the May elections.
Speaking to the Leader after the result, he said: “I was so sick of everything that I didn’t listen to the debate. I was outside trimming the hedges along my driveway.
“Obviously this as a big relief and since the result was announced my phone has gone mad with people giving my their congratulations and support.
“I am just glad the whole thing is now over. It’s now gone on for two months.
“I got to the stage of not even caring which way the vote would go. I just wanted it all to be over.”
The vote yesterday followed the findings of a probe by the Assembly’s Commissioner for Standards, Gerard Elias QC, which says Cllr Roberts “did everything he could have reasonably been expected to do in ensuring that he was not a disqualified person for the purpose of nomination or election to the National Assembly”.
“I’ve now got a lot of catching up to do,” said Cllr Roberts.
“When all this began I had just started my case work as an AM and that had to be left in abeyance.
“I am delighted North Wales will now have its full representation in the Assembly.”
Cllr Roberts added he would now be in touch with his colleagues to start addressing issues affecting North Wales.
A spokesman for the Welsh Liberal Democrats said: “We are very pleased.
“It was not fair that because of misleading information given to him by the Electoral Commission he was unable to take his seat.”