CARMARTHENSHIRE County Council Leader Kevin Madge has hit out bitterly at Plaid leader Peter Hughes Griffiths who earlier today revealed members would be discussing motions of no confidence against the County Hall leadership on Monday night.

Cllr Madge, who is facing calls to resign over the local authority's growing pensions and indemnity scandal, described Cllr Hughes Griffiths' comments as" nothing but political opportunism from someone who is increasingly desperate for power and sees this as maybe his last opportunity to try to get it".

Cllr Madge added: "Peter Hughes Griffiths is a complete hypocrite as he was fully consulted and strongly supported the granting of the indemnity. In fact, he was one of its greatest advocates, something he appears to have conveniently forgotten now.

"If we believed his sanctimonious rant we could we forgiven for thinking he had the genuine interest of Carmarthenshire at heart.

"Sadly, we don’t believe this is the case – Cllr Hughes Griffiths has his eye on his own prize – power at County Hall, which he has sought unsuccessfully for some considerable time.

"Was this not the case, he would at least have waited for the full debate in council and for all the evidence and facts to be presented before making judgment on either these issues or the role of any individuals.

"It is not good for Carmarthenshire for opposition politicians to be rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of gaining some kind of power, rather than focusing on the matters at hand which are of far more importance than political posturing."

Responding to his comments, MP Jonathan Edwards said: "Unless the leadership has withheld information from the Audit Office, then all evidence has been seen by the Auditor to reach his damning conclusion.

"No deflection attempt can mask the Audit Office's further damaging revelation today that the Council did not seek specific legal advice on the Chief Executive's indemnity before approving it."

Mr Edwards added that while Cllr Hughes Griffiths was indeed consulted back in 2012  it now appeared that all councillors, as well as Carmarthenshire residents, had been "totally misled" by the leadership.

"Kevin Madge is in a state of complete denial, unable to see how angry the public are at his total incompetence," he said.

"The bottom line is that the leadership has acted unlawfully. If Peter Hughes Griffiths was leading the council, we would see decisive action to hold out-of-control officers to account."