A PARISH Councillor who allegedly launched into a “vitriolic attack” in a phone conversation with a council clerk amid allegations of vote rigging has been found not to have breached the code of conduct.
Clerk to Beeford Parish Council, Rosalind Turner, made a formal complaint against Councillor Hillary Winterbottom after she allegedly “launched into a verbal assault” over the phone.
The telephone call came after Coun Winterbottom’s son failed to be co-opted onto the parish council, which was followed by a further phone call in which she allegedly accused Mrs Turner of contacting other parish councillors to “rig the vote”.
Mrs Turner wrote to Coun Winterbottom, who has been a Parish Councillor for over 17 years, in July 2009 asking for an apology but never received a response.
The matter was referred to the Monitoring Officer by the Standards Committee Association Sub-Committee for investigation.
Democratic Services Officer Tracey Tomlinson, who investigated the matter, reported that Coun Winterbottom’s actions put her in breach of paragraph 3.1 of the code of conduct, which states “you must treat others with respect.”
In a statement from Coun Winterbottom, who was unable to attend the hearing in person because of illness, she said the allegation that she had been disrespectful was “incorrect and hurtful.”
But after an hour long hearing, held at County Hall last Thursday (March 1), the East Riding of Yorkshire Council Standards Committee concluded that there had not been any breach of the code of conduct.
The complaint dated back to May 2009 when a co-option to fill a vacancy on Beeford Parish Council was held with two candidates applying, including Coun Winterbottom’s son.
After seeking advice from the ERYC Mrs Turner told Coun Winterbottom at the co-option meeting that she should declare a prejudicial interest as she was related to one of the candidates.
Coun Winterbottom did not take part in the vote and her son lost out by two votes to six.
According to Mrs Turner, a few days later, in a phone conversation Coun Winterbottom “launched into a verbal assault” and “was very irate and went on to question that I had in fact rung East Riding of Yorkshire Council for advice and asked me to prove that I had made such a call.
“She went on to shout at me that she would take this matter as far as she could, which I understandably took as a threat,” Mrs Turner said.
Mrs Turner also alleged that in a further phone call Coun Winterbottom had accused her of contacting members of the Parish Council to “rig the vote” for another candidate.
Mrs Tomlinson said that while there were no witnesses to the phone conversation it was difficult to say why Mrs Turner would have written to Coun Winterbottom seeking an apology if she had not had reason.
“This would suggest that the balance of probability is that Councillor Winterbottom upset Mrs Turner during the telephone conversation, although the content cannot be verified,” Mrs Tomlinson said.
The hearing was also told that Coun Winterbottom had not responded to Mrs Turner’s request for an apology because “she thought the clerk would have got it out of her system.”
Catherine Shannon, chair of the Standards Committee meeting, said on the balance of probabilities there was insufficient evidence for the committee to conclude that Coun Winterbottom’s conduct and failure to reply to the letter, had breached paragraph 3.1 of the code of conduct.
Speaking after the meeting Mrs Turner said: “Had I had the foresight to record the telephone conversation I believe the outcome of today’s hearing would have been very different.”