Political groups on North Yorkshire Council have been urged to ensure their whips receive adequate training following the conclusion of a 16-month complaints process over a bizarre incident in the council chamber in which a Conservative councillor pushed down a colleague’s hand during a vote.
The authority’s Standards and Governance Committee Hearings Panel found Lower Wensleydale councillor Tom Jones had “appeared to have been too heavy-handed” with fellow Tory and Hutton Rudby member Councillor Bridget Fortune during the first full meeting of the unitary local authority in May last year.
As well as calling for training for whips before they undertake their duties, the panel concluded Coun Jones had genuinely believed the veteran councillor “was mistakenly voting the wrong way” in a vote over who should become the authority’s first climate change champion.
At the time Opposition members pointed angrily across the council chamber at County Hall, in Northallerton, and erupted with cries of foul play.
Coun Fortune, a former chair of Hambleton District Council, declined to comment publicly about the incident, but Coun Jones said she had given him “a very very stern rebuke” outside the meeting, before he apologised both to her and the chamber for his action.
Coun Fortune resigned from the authority two months later amid claims of bullying in the Conservative group, leading the council’s leader to pledge to uphold a zero-tolerance approach to any such behaviour.
However, the council’s Liberal Democrat group leader, Councillor Bryn Griffiths, lodged a complaint that Coun Jones may have breached the authority’s Code of Conduct for elected members, which sparked an independent investigation.
Coun Jones told the investigation there had been “an episode of confusion” during the vote and “in a moment of youthful exuberance”, “lightly placed” his hand on Coun Fortune’s arm, informing her the Tory was not voting in favour of the matter.
The panel also concluded the incident involved “more than a light touch contact”, but it was not possible to determine how much force was used by Coun Jones as conflicting accounts had been put forward by witnesses.
It found Coun Jones did not intend to bully, intimidate or harass Coun Fortune, but rather had acted on impulse, and had accepted what he had done was wrong from the outset, before showing remorse.
The panel’s ruling states: “By using physical action to influence a vote, the panel agreed with the investigating officer’s view that the subject
member’s challenge was not constructive and could reasonably affect the public’s confidence in him and other councillors to make independent decisions in the interests of their communities, where appropriate.”
The panel agreed sanctions of Coun Jones apologising to the full council and to Coun Fortune, but as he had already undertaken these actions and been subject to the scrutiny of a standards investigation and hearing no further action was required.
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