Sally Allen: Investigation was a disgraceful waste of taxpayers’ money

To quote the great character Ted Hastings in The Line of Duty: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the wee donkey, can we just move this thing along before it drives us all round the bloody bend?”

Never truer words said. After sitting through eight hours of unedifying rubbish where ‘recollections definitely differed’, I am even more depressed about the shocking way our small town is managed.

The disgraceful way that the council and its administrators have wasted our (taxpayers') money is beyond belief. I am referring of course to what I feel was the kangaroo court that was  staged on February 11, to slap Cllr Katya Maddison over the knuckles for daring to say “shame on you” to the council’s chief executive, Anne-Marie Bond. Not only was it unnecessary, a waste of time for all sat there, it also didn’t get anywhere either!

At great expense, the council and its lackeys spent over £9,000 on hiring a private investigator, and the overall final cost is likely to be nearer £15,000.

Added to this, if you become a chief executive of anything, having ‘shame on you’ said to describe your actions is incredibly mild and should roll off the back of someone elevated to that position.

To go back to the beginning of this affair, it all started when Cllr Swithin Long (Lib Dem), who was the agreed candidate by all parties to become the next civic mayor, was kicked into touch unceremoniously by council leader Dave Thomas last May.

What made it worse was that the change of heart was made without any prior warning.

The reason was of course, so that Thomas could appoint a Tory councillor to ensure he maintained control over the hung council due to the untimely death of the highly regarded, Cllr Patrick Joyce (Prosper Torbay).

This announcement immediately stirred-up calls from the public gallery of ‘shame on you’ until they were evicted from the meeting. And we call this process democratic! What a joke that is when the public voice is removed. 

As we are now aware, this rebuke from Katiya  was apparently a heinous crime and required lengthy investigation, which eventually ended up with Katya being hauled before the Standards Committee. 

So back to the Standards Committee where toy town politics was on show and the only characters missing were Noddy and Big Ears.

The committee was chaired by the council leader’s wife Cllr Jacqueline Thomas (Cons) and the other members sitting in judgement were conservative Cllr Hazel Foster (who has been suspended in the past for bullying) and the very mild-mannered gentleman, Cllr Ras Virdee (LibDem).

The investigator gave a very lengthy report and concluded that Cllr Maddision was not guilty of crossing the line with her rebuke and therefore there was no breach of the code of conduct.

Due to a posting on Facebook however, he did find her guilty of bringing the council into disrepute.

We then had to sit through supposed ‘witnesses’ giving evidence where it was clear that ‘recollections differed’.

Then the Standards Committee retired to mark their own homework, with the result that, surprise, surprise, Cllr Maddision was found guilty on both counts. Her sentence is to apologise to the chief executive and the council. If it was me, I’m afraid hell would freeze over first!

It beggars belief that a gaggle of councillors can be intimidated by one woman saying four words; particularly after an expensive, independent investigator concluded that no code of conduct had been breached. 

In my opinion, this has been an abuse of taxpayers’ money and councillors time when surely, they have more pressing problems to deal with. Even the leader of the council, his deputy Cllr Chris Lewis and his wife Cllr Barbara Lewis, the deputy civic mayor, were sat there all day. Why? Surely this was not the most impoortant business for the council that day?

For example, the councillors’ time would have been better spent sorting out the stupidity of the Strand being dug up again. Didn’t anyone check that all the services were in and working before they bricked over the ridiculously expensive £4m-plus ‘Strand Transformation’? Apparently  they have only just realised that you can’t have lights along the harbourside without electric cabling!

None of the above could have been made-up by the best sitcom writer but sadly and tragically it is all true. Added to this, all I ended up with was a numb bum and bad back for sitting eight hours on a seriously uncomfortable chair and then having to run the gauntlet of fear from the town hall to the car park in the dark after 7pm.

The top of the town is a scary place to be on your own even in the daytime, let alone at night. It is an unnerving experience and not one I will undertake again. Something else for the council to consider as they clearly have a lot of time on their hands. Shame on you!