Councillor who used racial slur in meeting suspended from group
A LIBERAL Democrat councillor who repeatedly used a racial slur during a council meeting has been suspended from the party’s Cheltenham group.
Cheltenham Borough Councillor Dennis Parsons (Pittville) said the offensive word four times during Monday’s meeting in reference to the name of his family’s black cat when he was a child, as he highlighted how British attitudes towards race have changed since the end of the Second World War.
A day later Mr Parsons issued an apology, which said he was “very sorry for articulating the n-word” during the meeting, adding he is “hugely embarrassed by his actions”.
The leader of Cheltenham Liberal Democrats Steve Jordan has confirmed Mr Parsons’ membership of the local group has been suspended following a vote on Tuesday, June 16.
Before Mr Parsons’ suspension, senior figures within the local group had called for him to resign and separate formal complaints were lodged with the authority and the local and national party headquarters.
Meanwhile, an online petition calling on Mr Parsons to resign from Cheltenham Borough Council as a councillor has received more than 140 signatures in less than 24 hours.
The comments were made during a motion debate to review the authority’s policies and organisational structure to challenge racial bias in the wake of George Floyd’s death in the US last month, which was unanimously voted through.
Thousands of people attended a peaceful protest in the town’s Pittville Park in response to the death of Mr Floyd, 46, who died after a white officer held him down by pressing a knee into his neck in Minneapolis on Monday, May 25.
Councillor Max Wilkinson (LD, Oakley) said yesterday that the authority’s chief executive Gareth Edmundson confirmed all borough councillors will receive training on issues of race, equality and diversity.
Cheltenham Borough Council says it is working to make the video of the full council meeting available to the public, and will mute the racial slur Mr Parsons made.