Ex-councillor complaint cost council almost £5k
A COMPLAINT against a former councillor cost a local authority nearly £5k.
Ashley Waters, the former Middlesbrough Independent Group councillor for North Ormesby, was sitting on a licensing sub-committee at the time.
He was responsible, alongside two other councillors, for making judgements on whether a premises should be awarded a licence.
At a hearing on March 24, 2021, the committee was deciding on whether an alcohol licence should be granted for a proposed convenience store at 136 Marton Road in central Middlesbrough.
Representations were received from several parties regarding the application, including public health.
The public health representative, Fiona Helyer, was also in attendance
at the hearing.
According to an email from the responsible authorities’ barrister (who represents public health, police and the council ) to legal services, a message was sent from Mr Waters to Ms Helyer at approximately 2pm.
The content of the message was along the lines of, ‘Hi Fiona, do you need me to say anything else?.’
Three emails were also sent from Mr Waters to the barrister representing the responsible authorities between 2.52pm and 3.07pm.
The emails contained screenshots from the Facebook page of Best-One Lanehouse, the off-licence premises operated by the proposed designated premises supervisor for the new site.
When sitting on licensing committees councillors are meant to be independent and not interfere or show any bias.
The responsible authorities’ barrister was concerned that the emails to him from Mr Waters potentially impacted the “general principle of fairness” as Mr Waters had communicated with only one party to the proceedings, having not copied in the applicant’s solicitor.
The hearing had to be abandoned as the outcome could not be used.
A complaint to the council about Mr Waters was received from the applicant on April 13, 2021.
The council’s monitoring officer Charlotte Benjamin accepted the complaint which led to the council paying out £4,911.93 to the applicant and the police for wasted costs.
The matter was due to be referred to the standards committee, however Mr Waters resigned as a councillor before this happened.
Mr Waters said: “The only thing I can say to this was that I was working in the best interests of the Middlesbrough public.
“The highlighted behaviour of the person in question was alarming, and the reason I contacted the barrister, was due to the fact he said he could not see the information that was being presented in the meeting and I was trying to make him aware of it.”
Mr Waters resigned in November 2021 after criticism over time he was spending in France, where his family were renovating a chateau.
He said the constant abuse he faced during his time as a councillor was horrific.