Response from Penarth Councillor Gwyn Roberts after Sian Lewis' open letter about comments he made about the Welsh language in a Penarth Town Council meeting:

Thank you for taking the time to write to me about my reported comments on Penarth Daily News. I feel it disappointing that you did not feel any need to confirm the accuracy of the somewhat infamous ‘blog’ upon which you based your letter. A little research, or asking me directly, would have given a broader perspective upon which to base your comments.

Thank you also for the invitation to meet “to raise my awareness of the issues”. I will respectfully decline it as I feel it is important that when people meet, there should be an opportunity for both parties to learn from the encounter and listen to alternative points of view. You do not seem to feel any need to do so yourself.

You acknowledge that I am an elected Councillor. As such a representative, I do not just have the right but also the duty to speak and act in the best interests of all my constituents in my own judgement within the Council’s Code of Conduct. Any comments made were within the context of open discussion within a Council meeting which subsequently decided to award funding to your organisation.

The tirade of unfounded abuse on social media from yourself, your followers and others has caused considerable distress to my family. That this offensive abuse was as a result of inflammatory comments from a publicly funded organisation, which had failed to corroborate the allegations of the contentious blog, is especially disappointing.

May I end by noting that you copied in an MP and an AM. Those you name are not the correct representatives for Penarth.

Yours sincerely

Cllr Gwyn Roberts