Parish councillor’s language breached code
A parish councillor from Barwell has been ordered to write a letter of apology to a member of the public.
He was found to be in breach of the Parish Council Code of Conduct by Hinckley & Bosworth’s Ethical Governance Committee.
The committee decided that Councillor Russ Roberts of Barwell Parish Council used aggressive and unnecessary language to a member of the public in a text message.
The committee was agreed that Councillor Roberts was acting in his capacity as a parish councillor when the exchange took place. The committee also had copies of the messages as evidence. Councillor Roberts maintains the message was sent privately as part of an ongoing correspondence with the member of the public. While this was taken into account, the committee felt this didn’t mitigate the language used and it was unacceptable for a councillor to use such language regardless of the circumstances.
The committee concluded that Councillor Robert’s comments constituted a breach of the code of conduct. It was proposed that he be asked to apologise and to attend training.
As Councillor Roberts has failed to apologise, the complaint and the decision of the Committee has been published and can be read in full on the council’s website.- More articles in the news archive