A COMPLAINANT offended by a d***heads comment made by Tory council leader Mike Jones at a public meeting is furious no action will be taken because the leader may have been attending as a private citizen.
Tattenhall resident and former Sportsman’s Arms landlord Colin Oats overheard Cllr Jones call two residents d***heads at a public meeting to discuss housing applications in The Barbour Institute last July.
This was after he was asked for his views on the planning applications being discussed in his capacity as ward councillor.
Cheshire West and Chester Council spokesman Ian Callister later issued a statement saying the ‘the leader of the council regrets the expression’.
Cllr Jones, who refused to take part in the subsequent council investigation, apologised to anyone attending ‘who was offended’ in a letter dated last month.
Investigator Mike Dudfield, who was commissioned by the council, originally found Cllr Jones broke the members’ code of conduct but has now amended his report following the receipt of the letter in which Cllr Jones also said he ‘only popped in for the last 10 minutes’ as he was meeting a friend later.
Mr Dudfield speculated: “It appears that Cllr Jones is suggesting that he was not attending the meeting in his capacity as a borough councillor.”
The investigator now says: “I cannot say whether I would have reached the same conclusion in relation to the application of the code to the subject matter of the complaint.”
Consequently the council’s monitoring officer, Meic Sullivan-Gould, was left with two options – either to commission a further formal complaint or to take no action.
He told Mr Oats: “The investigator has suggested that even if there were a further investigation and that a complaint panel were satisfied that there had been a breach of the council’s code of conduct then the apology that has already been given would be sufficient to conclude the matter. I agree with the investigator.”
Mr Sullivan-Gould added: “The council’s procedures provide that a decision to take no action on a complaint is final. There is no right to have the decision reviewed.”
“It stinks,” said Mr Oats, who also took exception to a comment from the investigator, who told the monitoring officer nothing was likely to dissuade him not to ‘have his day’ before the panel.
Mr Oats said: “He says it was about me having my day but it was never about that. It was about making sure the leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council treats people with respect.”
Tom Fell, founder of Cheshire Farm Ice Cream and a former parish councillor, who believes the councillor directed his ‘d***heads’ outburst at him and another person in the room, said: “It stinks. The whole lot stinks.”
