Ex-councillor ‘bullied’ town clerk – but claims ‘witch hunt’

An ex-town councillor has claimed there has been “a witch-hunt” against him following a damning conduct investigation report – his fourth in as many years.

Ewen Sinclair resigned from Ledbury Town Council following the latest investigation by the monitoring officer of Herefordshire Council, which oversees code of conduct complaints against town and parish as well as county councillors.

The monitoring officer said an email sent by Mr Sinclair to the town clerk a year ago, regarding a previous code of conduct complaint over harassment, was “intimidating, harassing, disrespectful and bullying”, which in the context of her experiences with the then councillor, “had a significant impact upon her and her wellbeing”.

Mr Sinclair responded: “I am being asked to apologise for asking the clerk to do her job and getting frustrated for her inability to do it.”

The investigation also found Mr Sinclair had shared with a third party confidential papers from a standards panel convened over a separate conduct violation. His explanation and justification for this “lacked credibility”, the monitoring officer concluded.

It was also claimed that Mr Sinclair has failed to comply with the recommendations of the three previous investigations. He “does not consider that (the process) is applied fairly or equitably,” the report said, adding this constituted a further breach.

And although Mr Sinclair had resigned his position after receiving the draft investigation report, “the recommendation that Councillor Sinclair apologises to the complainant remains unchanged”, the report said – while two other recommendations, including that he undertake further training, “shall be held in abeyance, should (he) be re-elected as a councillor”, in Ledbury or elsewhere.

The recommendations were adopted by the town council last week.

Its chairman Coun Liz Harvey claimed afterwards that, having refused to comply with previous recommendations, “this time he sought to duck responsibility entirely by resigning his position as a councillor”.

She added the “strong and sweeping sanctions reflect the seriousness of Mr Sinclair’s persistent failures to behave in the manner befitting an elected representative”.

But Mr Sinclair hit back that Coun Harvey “is spinning this to do me reputational damage”.

“Most local people know who the villain is, and it isn’t me,” he said.