Disciplinary was waste of money

Sir,– With regard to the suspension of Councillor Moore, I believe this is all a case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

All the councillor did was refer to the four women (who made the complaints) as “lovely ladies”, flicked the hood of one of them to get her attention – no doubt in a noisy bustling setting which prompted him to do that – refer to one or more of them as “dear” and physically touch them in a way that was unwanted and unexpected. That last one sounds really bad because in our oversexualised society we are all too quick to go assuming the worst of people.

I don’t believe that there was enough information reported on those “touching” incidents for readers to come to any firm conclusion of whether or not these incidents of touching were appropriate, and if they were inappropriate, how bad they actually were.

In noisy bustling situations I have sometimes had cause to touch people’s arms to get their attention – touching doesn’t always have to mean groping or inappropriate advances.

I have had a lengthy career working for a local authority and a local authority partner agency.

During those years I witnessed and experienced abuses which make this incident look very tame indeed.

None of those incidents led to the hue and cry that has been evident here.

Nothing was reported about Councillor Moore having had any history of such inappropriate behaviour.

I get the impression that Councillor Moore is in his 60s.

For the first half of his life, that “lovely ladies” banter of his would have been acceptable and possibly even considered as gentlemanly.

I am slightly younger than this councillor and people in my generation have had to unlearn many attitudes/ expressions/practises that were once taught to us, or that we were encouraged in.

Sometimes people of my age and older slip up or misread the situations we are in.

The people of Angus deserve better than to have their council tax monies wasted on all the procedures that would have been generated by this incident, which I believe need not have happened.

I feel that this could, and should, have been handled better. Lindsay Cook.

11 Maule Street, Carnoustie.