Haverhill Town Council: Standards Board for England
- From: "Mabon Dane" <1dane@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 25 Mar 2006 11:04:38 -0800
Note: A debate on another newsgroup but I post here because it is
relevant.
The Tribunal decision is based upon information given to it by the
Standards Board for England. The verdict would have been very different
had I entered a defence.
As an example the events that took place in a certain planning meeting
in 2003 as related by the Standards Board for England would have been
challenged by upto 5 Haverhill Town Councillors who would have said
something different.
Another example. A full council meeting totally collapsed because I
asked a question about an item on the minutes that were incorrect.
There was a finance meeting where there was some debate about safety
issues concerning a defibulator. I supported a motion to get an expert
invited to answer councillor questions about the defibulator. The
motion was seconded and there was a vote. The motion was defeated. The
motion was also in part to record that we councillors who had safety
concerns had at least made the effort to get an expert called in to
talk to us about the defibulator to protect ourselves if something went
wrong and the council became liable (i.e. we could be personally
liable).
All motions are significant items of business to record on council
minutes. The Haverhill Town Clerk, Gordon Mussett, did not record the
motion on the finance minutes. I raised the query at the Full Council
Meeting to get the minutes amended so that the motion we had voted on
would be recorded.
The Haverhill Town Clerk made a big thing of this simple request and he
felt it was an insult to his professionalism. All I had asked for the
minutes to be corrected to record a true record of what happend in a
prior finance meeting. I was not rude, abusive or hostile in anyway.
Cllr Annette Daniel Ward was the Chairman of that unfortunate meeting
in June 2003. Witnesses say that Gordon Mussett attacked Cllr Ward
whilst others say it was Cllr Ward who attacked Gordon Mussett. Gordon
Mussett made a big thing out of my simple and reasonable request to
change the minutes and it appears that he provoked Cllr Ward to reveal
certain hidden facts about the defibulator and a row broke out between
Cllr Ward and Gordon Mussett. Cllr Annette Daniel Ward lost control of
the entire meeting and had what I can only describe as a total nervous
breakdown when Gordon Mussett went for her. The meeting was abandoned.
During that night the doctor was called out and there was some fear
that Cllr Ward would die. Fortunately Cllr Ward did not die but her
health was in great danger. She was signed off sick by the doctor and
the events have left a devastating mark on her mentally, and she has
never recovered . Cllr Ward resigned a few months later due to ill
health . Cllr Ward is afraid of Gordon Mussett and thinks he will come
after her.
The Standards Board for England blamed me for being disruptive at that
full council meeting!!! ??? Um Bloody hell! Anyway, I asked Annette
Daniel Ward if she would provide a witness statement to the events of
that council meeting. Annette Ward wanted to see the paperwork of the
Standards Board for England before she would provide the witness
statement. I said I could not show this information to Annette Daniel
Ward as had I done so the local government acts would have meant I
would have been given a prison sentence of upto 6 months. The system is
crap and unfair. Annette Daniel Ward refused to provide the witness
statement and that was the straw that broke the camels back. I then
decided not to fight and defend myself. My opinion was that if fellow
HRA members were not going to fight I was not going to either. So I did
not. Now the official verdict is that Annette Daniel Ward and I bullied
the Haverhill Town Clerk at that full council meeting in June 2003.
The Tribunal was an opportunity for everyone to clear their names and
to bring a sense of justice to the Haverhill Town Council. Like day one
the HRA and others could not get get their act together and f.cked up.
The only issue I would suffer from not entering a defence to the
Tribunal was a councillor ban, some negative publicty and the odd
individual who likes to use it to browbeat me. I was not going against
a fully qualified Standards Board legal barrister without being 100%
prepared. I was not prepared and HRA people like Annette Daniel Ward
ruined another chance to get justice.
The courts will now decide this and not a pseudo-legal body like the
Standards Board for England and their tribunals.
Mabon Dane
.
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