Opposition leaders react to council leader’s disrepute hearing

Rochdale Council’s Conservative leader says he hopes council leader Allen Brett has ‘learned his lesson’ after being sanctioned for bringing the authority into disrepute.

A standards hearing found Councillor Brett had breached the council’s code of conduct by suggesting he would withhold highways funding from non-Labour voting areas, at a party meeting.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/124881/leader-admits-breaching-councils-code-of-conduct

Councillor Brett insisted the leaked comments were no more than banter, and the hearing accepted there was no evidence he had attempted or planned to manipulate spending.

But he was disciplined by the panel, which has instructed him to undertake further training on the code of conduct.

Conservative leader Ashley Dearnley says he hopes Councillor Brett will take the findings of the hearing on board.

He said: “I think, like a lot of things, it shook people’s faith in the democratic process and hope that he accepts the training and learns from it.

“I’m not surprised at the outcome, but people need to be aware of their responsible positions and people don’t feel threatened as to what services they will not get if they don’t vote a certain way.

“Let’s hope it’s a lesson learned, that he takes the lesson seriously, and we can move on.”

However, in Councillor Brett’s response to the draft standards report, he questions whether complainants were ‘truly concerned with highways funding’ or more interested in ‘political mischief making’.

And he added that Lib Dem leader Councillor Andy Kelly - whose Milnrow ward Councillor Brett is heard to mention in the leaked record - ‘merits particular mention’.

He added: “He has been aware since February 2018 of the project to increase spending on the borough’s roads in accordance with the established rules and yet his somewhat disingenuous complaint implies that it is possible for individuals to manipulate the allocation of public funds for political gain.”

 

 

Councillor Kelly rejected the leader’s claim that his complaint was an act of political mischief.

He said: “A lot of this is down to the fundamental principle of free speech. If he can get up in a meeting of fellow Labour councillors and say he is going to withhold funds in Milnrow and that is unchallenged, what am I supposed to do, say nothing? What a ridiculous thing to say.”

“If I was recorded saying something out of order, would Councillor Brett consider himself to be disingenuous in making a complaint?

“I didn’t know he was talking about road repairs from that snatch of conversation.”

Councillor Kelly added that people in Milnrow were still upset about the leader’s comments - and branded the standards committee ‘toothless and archaic’.

He said: “It’s smoke and mirrors at the end of the day, whether it’s external or internal, it was always going to come back to the standards committee and the standards committee can’t take any meaningful action.

“It’s about time we changed the standards committee and if that means changing it nationally, let’s change it nationally.”

Councillor Brett – who apologised for the remarks – has said he is keen to put the matter behind him and ‘get on with the job of transforming our borough’.

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter