Thursday 17 March 2011

In-fighting “Is stopping council doing its job”

Report by Rebekha Smith - Stratford Herald

TRIVIALITY and in-fighting dominated this week's meeting of Beaudesert and Henley Joint Parish Council when another meeting got bogged down dealing with petty issues at the expense of discussions issues for the benefit of the town.Cllr George Matheou summed it up neatly when he said towards the end of the nearly 90-minute meeting on Monday:"Instead of getting on with our jobs to serve this community we're dealing with pettiness."Trouble began in the public participation session when resident Mike Willmott asked chairman Cllr Les Goodman to explain why he had spoken in support of the cattle market application at Stratford District Council's planning committee meeting the previous week as the council had not supported the application. Cllr Goodman refused to answer, prompting resident Stephen Dorow to ask incredulously: "Why don't you reply? Is it not decent of you to reply to the question?"

Cllr Goodman retorted: "Are you saying I'm not decent?" To which Mr Dorow argued: "I'm saying it was a decent question." Cllr Goodman cut short the verbal sparring by agreeing with Mr Dorow but adding: "The rules are I don't have to answer."

However, Cllr Goodman later addressed the question by denying he had said he supported the cattle market application. He said: "I said we didn't object in principle to the to the development but we still had concerns over certain items not being addressed."

Some time was then spent debating the minutes of the previous meeting and whether two votes had been taken or just one, something one would think would be fairly straightforward.Two weeks ago councillors voted to seek police advice into a potential fraud committed by two of their colleagues. Cllrs Bill Leech and Sue Osborne, who had produced a draft letter using the council's letterhead and logo without consent.

The confused debate started this week when Cllr Sheila Roy said she had not voted to contact the police but had voted to report the incident to Stratford District Council's standards and ethics committee. Council clerk Jenny Walsh informed her only one vote had taken place for both those decisions, to which a number of councillors agreed. But Cllrs Roy, Leech and Osborne, and indeed the vocal Mr Dorow who had attended the last meeting, remembered two votes taking place.

Cllr Roy said she had not known what she was voting for and even Mrs Walsh admitted councillors were often confused about what they were voting on.

The council soon faced this danger again during a lengthy debate on whether to renew its annual membership of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). Two councillors argued the CPRE had never helped the council, but Cllr Osborne argued the CPRE had done a lot to prevent inappropriate development in the town.

After a proposal to renew membership had been defeated a seemingly academic proposal not to renew membership was made. As even the clerk got confused about whether councillors were voting for or against paying the annual subscription of £29 Mr Dorow chipped in: "Shall I pay it?" The council eventually voted not to renew the membership.

Among the petty issues was some good news for the town. Cllr George Matheou updated councillors on progress with ideas to deal with the derelict buildings at Henley Railway Station and put forward his idea to set up a committee to look at alternative sites for the market, to ensure Henley remains a market town.

Cllr Chris Milsom reported on the success of the flood exercise held on Saturday as part of the national Watermark exercise, and a resident asked councillors to add their names to a petition to save the town's library—already up to nearly 500 signatures.

The Midweek Herald report on the planning meeting states:
Parish council chairman Cllr Les Goodman told members on Wednesday the council supported the plans in principle .....

Saturday 5 March 2011

2 Councillors reported to the police

Stratford Herald - 3rd March 2011

HENLEY councillors requested a police investigation this week into the conduct of two of their colleagues who used the council's official letterhead without consent.

At the meeting of Beaudesert and Henley Joint Parish Council on Monday night the council's clerk, Jenny Walsh, told councillors that the action of Cllrs Sue Osborne and Bill Leech was potentially fraudulent.

The issue arose from a request by a resident of Prince Harry Road for the two councillors to ask for his complaint about the council's chairman, Cllr Les Goodman, to be included on the council's agenda last month.

The resident had requested an apology from Cllr Goodman after comments he made at a meeting on 6th December last year when the resident was prevented from talking about the cattle market. Mrs Walsh told the Herald that the resident had previously sent an e-mail to all councillors saying if they wanted to be re-elected in 2012 they should be mindful of the resident's views on the cattle market.

Cllr Goodman, and several other councillors, told the resident they found this comment offensive. The resident then made a formal complaint to the Stratford District Council's monitoring officer but it was rejected in February.

Mrs Walsh said after the meeting: "Complaints about individual councillors is not a matter for a parish council to discuss on its agenda, therefore the two councillors were wrong to ask me to include it. More significantly, the letter they signed included an attached draft 'apology' that had been created on the council's own letter headed paper. Although watermarked with 'draft' it purported to be sent as an apology to the resident from the chairman."

Mrs Walsh contacted the association of local councils for advice and said the county secretary confirmed the councillors were wrong to request the item and had most likely breached the code of conduct for councillors in   using   the council’s letter headed paper without permission to re-create a document which, purported to have been created by the council.

She said forging an organisation's official letterhead without its consent was outside the law.

At Monday's meeting Cllr George Matheou urged fellow   councillors   to inform the police and request a full investigation. Councillors voted for both the police investigation and to register a complaint to Stratford District Council's standards and ethics committee.

After the meeting, Cllr Leech said: "The JPC (joint parish council) ruling group do not want anyone on the council who will challenge them. To date. there have been six complaints against me to the Standards and Ethics committee. None of these complaints has so far been successful but these complaints have cost Stratford District Council taxpayers about £10,000 to investigate."