£10,000 bill for Stratford Council Taxpayers

Stratford Observer - Laura Payne  20th May 2011

DYSFUNCTIONAL, antagonistic and divided is how a parish council has been branded following an investigation which cost taxpayers £10,000.

Henley and Beaudesert Parish Council was on the receiving end of the savage criticism from Stratford District Council's Standards Committee after the conclusion of a ten month saga which saw nine complaints made about the conduct of Coun Bill Leech by fellow councillors and the parish clerk.

But the committee cleared Coun Leech of any wrong-doing in all but one instance where it found an article he published online took comments made by the clerk Jenny Walsh out of context, made unjustified references to her behaving illegally and was generally disrespectful to her.

Coun Leech was ordered to write a letter of apology or face a two week suspension if he failed to do so. He told the Observer he had refused to apologise.

He said: "Having taken time to reflect on this I have decided not to apologise for failing to show respect. Respect has to be earned and it also has to work both ways, the ruling group, including the parish clerk, have not shown me any respect."

He added he would not appeal the decision because as it would cost taxpayers more money on top of that which had "already been wasted".

Coun Leech said: "I will not be appealing against the decision as it would only involve further months of investigation and more cost on what is at the end of the day a petty squabble. The Investigating Officer even agreed that this type of investigation was not designed for such trivial matters."

In one of the complaints Coun Leech was accused of misusing parish council letterheaded paper but investigating officers pointed out the letter in question was clearly marked 'draft.'In its response to this incident the committee said nothing had occurred which constituted a breach of the code of conduct or warranted an investigation and called some of the complaints it was being asked to consider simply 'tit-for-tat.'

Five of the complaints made against Coun Leech were submitted by Mrs Walsh who accused him of sending threatening correspondence and attempting to undermine her position.

Mrs Walsh told the Observer she has been instructed not to comment until the standards committee had submitted its full report - expected in a couple of weeks.

Coun Leech said he hoped the parish council could now move forward.

He said: "We have a dysfunctional council which was confirmed in the response from the district council. Let’s hope that with their intervention Henley will be the clear winner in that it may now have a more democratic parish council."

The district council has suggested all those involved bury their differences.