In England there are some 8,500 parish and town councils constituted under successive Local Government Acts of Parliament. Oversight to ensure that these councils operate according to the law is provided by the Administrative Court which is part of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. This court exercises the High Court's supervisory jurisdiction mainly through a procedure known as "judicial review" and may make mandatory orders or injunctions to compel a council to do its duty or to stop it from acting illegally.
The Administrative Court has approved and sealed the Court Order relating to the unlawful ban placed on Cllr William Leech by the Beaudesert and Henley-in-Arden Joint Parish Council (JPC). This Court Order is not a gagging order and so the full details of the case can be reported as it is no longer 'sub judice'.
Regular readers of Henley NEWS will be aware of Cllr Bill Leech’s on-going campaign against the excessive costs incurred by the Beaudesert and Henley-in-Arden Joint Parish Council.
Since Bill Leech, pictured below, was first elected in May 2008, he has maintained that the administrative costs of running the JPC are too high (especially when compared with other, similar parish councils) and that savings could be made – these savings could then be used for the benefit of the community, or as a basis to reduce the precept (the money you pay to the JPC each year).
As a councillor he is entitled to challenge other councillors and the parish clerk in any way he chooses so long as he does not contravene the Council's Code of Conduct. Indeed, it should be beneficial to the whole of the JPC, and to the people of Henley and Beaudesert more generally, that someone is prepared to take enough interest in this matter.
However, Cllr Leech’s on-going questioning of the JPC’s costs has not been appreciated by those members of the JPC who established this high administrative cost base in the first place. Between 2009 and 2011 the ‘ruling group’ on the Beaudesert & Henley-in-Arden Joint Parish Council, comprising principally Cllr Les Goodman, Cllr Roger Hubbocks, Cllr George Matheou and the Parish Clerk Mrs Jenny Walsh, mounted a campaign to discredit Cllr Leech by misinterpreting Cllr Leech's campaign for economy and efficiency as 'harassment and bullying against the parish clerk'.
Eight complaints were made to the Standards and Ethics Committee of Stratford District Council against Cllr Leech, five of these by the parish clerk. All were rejected with two minor 'procedural' exceptions. Cllr Leech has always maintained these 'procedural' exceptions would have been overturned by a Judicial Review, but he served a two week ban missing only one council meeting.
In its last judgment, the Standards and Ethics Committee of Stratford District Council described the Joint Parish Council as "dysfunctional" and the parish clerk as "provocative". The cost of reviewing all these complaints was put at more than £10,000, paid for by council taxpayers. This should have been the end of the matter.
However, the ‘ruling group’, frustrated by their lack of success with the Standards & Ethics Committee, then instigated an unlawful ban on Cllr Leech preventing him from visiting the parish office, sitting on any of the council's committees or communicating with the parish clerk. This was communicated to Cllr Leech in an unsigned letter from Cllr Hubbocks (who was Chairman at the time). Cllr Leech did not challenge this unlawful ban as the 2012 parish council election was fast approaching.
At the parish council election in May 2012, Cllr Leech was re-elected and Cllr Hubbocks lost his seat. In August 2012, Cllr Les Goodman, the new chairman, imposed an indefinite and unlawful ban on Cllr Leech - preventing him from visiting the parish office, sitting on any of the council's committees or communicating with the parish clerk – this was effectively limiting Cllr Leech’s role as a parish councillor so he could not perform the role he had been elected to do.
JPC Chairman Goodman was warned 3 times that the ban was illegal
Cllr Leech wrote to Cllr Goodman advising him that the ban was illegal, and the matter would have to be referred for Judicial Review at major cost to the parish council taxpayers.
Before commencing a judicial review, the court procedure requires that one formal letter, called a pre-action protocol letter, be sent by the claimant to the defendant. The purpose of this letter is to identify the issues in dispute and establish whether litigation can be avoided. Cllr Leech wrote three such letters. The Parish Council should have taken heed of these letters, and rescinded the ban immediately. This would have avoided all the legal costs but the 'ruling group' chose to spend parish council taxpayers' money fighting an unwinnable case. Cllr Goodman dismissed the last warning letter saying, "Your letter regarding a Judicial Review must be your decision".
High Court Orders the ban to be quashed and legal costs to be paid by Council
Cllr Leech instructed leading council David Lock QC, who was selected by the Birmingham Law Society to be their “Barrister of the Year” in 2011.
After receiving the High Court papers and taking legal advice, the JPC agreed, by a majority decision, to accept a Court Order without going to trial. The Court Order required the lifting of the ban and paying £8,000 towards Cllr Leech’s legal costs.
Chairman Goodman resigns & Joint Parish Council faces a bill of about £13,500
The Joint Parish Council's legal costs in defending this avoidable action including paying the claimant's legal costs are estimated to be about £13,500. It is to be hoped that the JPC will now tell residents how much of their council tax money was been spent on trying to defend their unlawful action.
On 21st January 2013 the current Chairman Cllr Les Goodman and the Vice-Chairman Cllr Chris Milsom resigned their appointments but remained as councillors. Alternate members from the ‘ruling group’ were elected by a majority vote. The parish clerk and the new vice-chairman Cllr Matheou wrote letters to the editor of the Stratford Herald which were published on Thursday 31st January whilst the matter was still 'sub-judice'.
Chairman Cllr Hubbocks has yet to write to Cllr Leech advising him that the unlawful ban has been lifted. Despite being instructed to lift the ban, pay Cllr Leech's legal costs and the former chairman resigning, the ‘ruling group’ still maintain that they have done nothing wrong.
This avoidable dispute should be seen as an investment in democracy. The price paid of £13,500 can be recouped with savings of around £20,000 per annum if more Henley Independents are elected to enable them to run the budget of the JPC.
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