Town council’s complaint over ‘racism’ handed back
ASHBOURNE Town Council has been asked to endorse a complaint it made over “vile, poisonous and slanderous” comments district councillors made about townsfolk by identifying which part of the council code of conduct has been breached.
At a meeting on Monday, councillors discussed a request by Derbyshire Dales District Council’s monitoring officer, asking for clarity over the complaint they submitted earlier this month, in response to comments made at a district council meeting in November.
At that meeting, under an item to discuss the future ownership of Ashbourne’s Black’s Head, a handful of district councillors suggested Ashbourne was a racist town with one councillor, Claire Raw, saying she had been shocked by racism she saw in the town while campaigning for a parliamentary seat in 2019.
Town councillors responded to the accusation, and similar comments made by other councillors, by writing to the district council’s monitoring officer to lodge a formal complaint against Councillors Raw, Allison, Burfoot, Slack and Gamble.
“This is not what we expect from elected representatives of Derbyshire Dales District Council”, the letter stated.
“They showed a total lack of respect for Ashbourne Town Council, and people who they have never met.”
The letter went on to demand a public apology and retraction in the News Telegraph and on television.
But at the town council’s meeting on Monday it was revealed that the monitoring officer James Mclaughlin has asked the town council to spell out which points of the district council’s code of conduct had been breached by the comments.
Town clerk Carole Dean pointed out to councillors that the formal complaint pro- cedure obliged anyone making a complaint to refer- ence specific points of the district council’s code of conduct.
The procedure had been sent out to councils ahead of the meeting on Monday, but after the letter of complaint was sent in.
And then Councillor Bob Pugh referred councillors to specific parts of Derbyshire Dales District Council’s constitution, which is on the authority’s website.
Several aspects, he argued, had not been observed by councillors who were discussing Ashbourne and its controversial carving.
Clauses involving objectivity, harassment, respect, dignity, championing the needs of residents, listening to the interests of all parties and valuing colleagues and staff were all breached, Councillor Pugh alleged. Town councillors then vented their frustration at having to clarify what aspect of the district councillors’ comments they found troubling. Sandra Spencer said: “It seems to be that certain members of the district council, I’m not saying who, can say what they like about another council.
“But if we say anything, we are in the wrong.
“And I just think it’s totally wrong that they can say what they want about us in Ashbourne, but we can’t retaliate.
“Because if we retaliate we’re going against the code of conduct. But they’re not.”
Councillor Denise Brown also revealed during the meeting that a member of the public had made a formal complaint towards her, about her comments following the full town council meeting on November 25, at which she suggested that some district councillors “needed educating on what is racist and what isn’t”.
She told members at that meeting: “I found the view of the district councillors that spoke against it (the Black’s Head) uneducated, ill-informed, probably hiding their own racist opinions, leaving them to shout just a little bit too loudly about something they know nothing about, other than what they learned from Tik Tok.”
The town councillors gave the clerk a list of six points of the district council constitution they felt had been breached, which will be sent back to the monitoring officer.
Councillor Pugh said: “My proposal is that our response to the monitoring officer is that we feel the actions of the named councillors do contradict their own code of conduct under those particular headings.”
It’s wrong that they can say what they want about us in Ashbourne, but we can’t retaliate.
Sandra Spencer