Disgraced Councillor Brett Offer's Apology

YESTERDAY at a Hearing Rochdale Council leader Allen Brett, through his solicitor, gave an unreserved apology for having threatened to gerrymander funding for highway maintenance so that a ward that didn't vote Labour in last May's local elections was disadvantaged.

The Audit & Governance Hearing found that Councillor Brett had been in breach of Paragraph 5 of the Councillor's Code of Conduct, when earlier this year he discussed acting in an unlawful way at a meeting of the Labour group which included other Labour councillors.

Even where the unlawful comments made are claimed to be made as 'banter' or as a joke, such remarks are not afforded the protection that public officials can claim them to be private remarks under 'Chatham House rules', as Councillor Brett sought to claim in his defence.

In his report to the Hearing the investigator Simon Goacher found that there was no evidence Councillor Brett would have acted on the 'threat' he made in his comment, and he had not acted in breach of paragraph 6 of the Code of Conduct, therefore in consequence '[h]e has not sought to obtain improper advantage/disadvantage for any person'.

What the Hearing did find, in keeping with Mr. Goacher's finding, is:  'he [Councillor Brett] has failed to comply with paragraph 5 of the Code as he has brought himself, his office and the Council into disrepute.'

The Hearing accepted that '[t]he comments made by Councillor Brett and widely reported will, understandably, have had a detrimental impact on the public's perception of Cllr Brett and the Council.' 

Perhaps we should leave almost the last word to Councillor Brett's solicitor, Mr. Dixon, who told the Hearing that with Cllr Brett 'What you see is what you get!'

The sanctions will require that the council leader to undertake further training relating to the code of conduct and the committee panel will publish its findings on the matter.

Following the hearing, Coun Brett in a statement given to the Manchester Evening News said: 

'I have said many times that my comments were not meant to be taken seriously and this process has finally concluded there was no way I could have influenced where our record road investment should be allocated.

'I now want to put this behind me and get on with the job of transforming our borough, which we are very much doing.

'I also want to look at ways of increasing our road repair programme even further because I know it's something many of our residents want
us to do.'

As a result of the hearing a recommendation has been made that in future all councillors undertake further training on the code of conduct.

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