Town councillor censured after resident's complaint

A row has broken out over the conduct of a town councillor, who is refusing to apologise following a disciplinary finding against him.

Ewen Sinclair sits on Ledbury Town Council, where fellow members have decided to censure him.

Resident David Thomas, who has a shop in the town, had complained Sinclair "taunted" him last September following a licensing dispute.

Herefordshire Council's standards panel investigated and called for the local politician to be removed from town council committees until his current term of office ends in 2027.

The panel also suggested Sinclair should attend code of conduct training and provide a written apology to Mr Thomas.

But the accused councillor claims the panel's report is contradictory and told a meeting it had "no jurisdiction" to investigate the September incident as there is "no evidence" he was acting in his capacity as a councillor.

"I will certainly not be apologising, and this will be going to the local government ombudsman," Sinclair told the meeting.

His colleague councillor Tony Bradford, present at the September incident, said he also believed Sinclair was not on council business at the time.

Sinclair asked for a named vote on whether to censure him, from which he and Bradford abstained.

The motion was otherwise supported.

Deputy mayor Liz Harvey said it was "an important principle" that councillors have a private life.

"But whether or not he was a councillor at the time, this was not the behaviour or intent that someone who is a councillor should exhibit towards a member of the public," she said.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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