New council leader acknowledges 'big mistake' in local brothel visit
ITV Wales' Hannah Thomas reports from Merthyr.
The new leader of Wales' smallest local authority says he has learned lessons from a "big mistake" he made by visiting a local brothel nine years ago.
Labour's Councillor Brent Carter has become the local authority's third leader in less than three years, with control of the council this week returning to Labour for the first time since 2017.
On his first day in office, Cllr Carter acknowledged mistakes made in the past, referring to an incident in 2015 when police found him at a local brothel.
Cllr Carter - then a serving councillor - faced no criminal charge for the incident, and a Public Services Ombudsman for Wales investigation found that he did not bring his office or authority into disrepute.
"It was a massive learning curve and a huge mistake, an error of judgement," he told ITV Cymru Wales.
"For me, I think life is all about making mistakes and learning from those mistakes and putting it right.
"It's given me a self-resilience and a new perspective on how to move things forward.
"I want to address that now and say everybody makes errors, we can all make mistakes, we're human beings.
"None of us are infallible and it's about putting those issues to bed and moving forward for the betterment of the people of Merthyr Tydfil, and I believe I'm the right person to do that now.
"I've learned from the past."
Cllr Carter was first elected to represent the Plymouth ward in Merthyr in 2008, and has been re-elected three times, serving in the cabinet of the last Labour administration of Merthyr council, which ended in 2017 when control of the council switched from Labour to Independent.
"Since that incident in 2015, I've been elected another twice so I've had the support from my residents. They trust me, and that's what I want to try to get across to everybody in Merthyr Tydfil: you can trust me because I'll do my best to work for everybody in this county borough.
"I think everybody deserves a second chance.
"We have all made mistakes across our lives - some bigger than others - and mine obviously was a big mistake, something which I'm going to learn from. A second chance is what I've got."
The change in leadership this week came after former leader Geraint Thomas, an Independent, stepped down following a recent by-election resulting in a Labour gain from the Independents and two councillors leaving the latter group.
Cllr Carter said it was a "huge honour and great privilege" to become council leader, saying: "I want to do the best I possibly can to serve the residents of Merthyr Tydfil.
"I think it's vitally important we work together across the chamber and I don't think we've had that for the last few years which has been disappointing, I suppose.
"I am acutely aware of the budget setting and we need to hit the ground running really quickly with regards to that.
"In terms of myself, what I want to offer is total commitment, resilient to do the best for the people of Merthyr Tydfil to the best of my ability, and I endeavour to do that working with local government, central government, our MS and MP."
The new leader told a full council meeting on Wednesday, 18 September: "We are here to witness a change of administration and the introduction of a change of leadership style, one that will be resilient and dynamic which will transform the authority into a fit-for-purpose organisation ready for the challenges that lie ahead.
"As an administration, we must be realistic, honest and above all transparent.
"We will actively listen to people's opinions by being open about the difficult choices we may face.
"We see this as key to meeting the financial challenges that we know await us going forward
"I am acutely aware the organisation needs to change in terms of structure and the delivery of key services. This will be one of our initial priorities as this is crucial to securing the long-term sustainability of the authority."
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