Southport Labour has called on the Liberal Democrat Leader in Sefton Council to issue an apology after councillors from his political group were the subject of bullying complaints which have led to a recommendation that the council’s Code of Conduct for Members be reviewed.
It follows news yesterday that compulsory conduct training is also to be recommended for all Sefton councillors after complaints were lodged about the behaviour of several Liberal Democrat Members at a Southport Area Committee meeting.
The recommendation follows the treatment meted out to two young mums from the Kew Playground Campaign. The women attended Southport Area Committee last September to request that Kew’s Liberal Democrat councillors release ward funds to help them save the park.
Instead of receiving assistance, the women were repeatedly told by the Lib-Dem councillors that a Sefton Council offer of £30,000 to help save the park simply didn’t exist. In fact, Sefton Council has guaranteed the money and work has now begun on the consultation to replace the park equipment.
The women made official complaints of feeling “bullied, intimidated and humiliated” after being shouted at and berated by several members of the local Lib-Dem group during the meeting.
The complaints largely centred around the behaviour of Councillor Richard Hands, who chaired the meeting, and Kew Ward’s Cllr Fred Weavers, after members of the public had to intervene from the gallery of the meeting to stop the women being harangued and shouted at. Cllr Tony Dawson, who is currently suspended from the Liberal-Democrats for an unconnected matter, was also involved in a subsequent incident and further complaint. It’s believed that the councillors rejected the idea that bullying had taken place.
The Chair of Sefton’s Initial Assessment Sub-Committee for Audit and Governance, Cllr Robert Brennan, has now written to the women to explain how it was “saddened” to learn of how they were made to feel at the meeting and “disappointed” to hear of the further online incident which involved Cllr Dawson.
As a result of discussions with the councillors involved it was decided to recommend a review of the code of conduct, mandatory retraining on the code and also training on appropriate social media use for all Sefton Councillors. No individual action was taken.
Now Southport Labour says that the Liberal Democrat Leader in Sefton, Cllr John Pugh, should issue an apology to the women and members of the public who witnessed the spectacle.
Southport Labour Chair, Mhairi Doyle MBE, says that the Lib-Dems must acknowledge that their conduct fell well short of what is acceptable:
“The treatment of those two young mums at that meeting was frankly appalling. When members of the public in the galleries feel compelled to interject to stop the women being harangued and shouted at, something has gone badly wrong, it was simply unacceptable. Now all of Sefton’s councillors face retraining because of the shoddy behaviour of a few in Southport. As their new leader in Sefton, John Pugh should do the decent thing and issue an apology to the women and to the public who attended at the very least.”
Labour’s prospective candidate in Kew, Janis Blackburne, who was at the meeting and witnessed the events said:
“The Lib-Dems have done nothing but try and undermine the campaign of these women and now nearly six months on are still resisting calls to put money in. They want to wait until the very last minute so they contribute as little as possible and then try and claim as much credit as they can just in time for the May election, all while doing nothing at all to actually help save the park. It’s nearly as shocking as their behaviour on that night. They need to give the campaigners the ward funds and give them an apology, now!”
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