Heesom v Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
2014
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
UK
CORAM
- MR JUSTICE HICKINBOTTOM
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Human Rights Law
2014
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
UK
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Appellant, a long-standing local councillor, was disqualified for 2.5 years by a tribunal for breaches of the council's Codes of Conduct. On appeal, while three breaches were quashed, several were upheld including serious allegations of abusive and bullying behavior towards council officers. The court found that disqualification was appropriate, but reduced the period to 18 months, balancing the severity of the misconduct against the enhanced protection for political expression under Article 10 of the ECHR.
Judgment
Mr Justice Hickinbottom :
Introduction
The Appellant is 76 years of age, and is a long-standing local councillor.
He was first elected as a member of Clwyd County Council in 1990, and, on the introduction of unitary authorities in Wales, he was elected to Flintshire County Council as Independent member for the Mostyn ward in 1996, being re-elected in 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012. After the 2004 elections, he became leader of the Independents, the main opposition group on the Council. In the 2008 elections, the Independents became the largest group on the Council, and the Appellant became the leader of the Council in waiting. However, he was put under investigation for election irregularities – during which he was in due course cleared of any impropriety – and it was decided that another Independent member (Councillor Arnold Woolley) should take on the leadership of the Council, which he did. The Appellant remained leader of the Independents, and was appointed Executive Member for Housing Strategy. The Independent group lost control of the Council in the 2012 elections.
On 12 March 2009, a complaint about the Appellant’s conduct was submitted to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (“the Ombudsman”) by all of the Council’s Corporate Management Team, which was made up of the Council’s Senior Officers. As a result of the complaint, he stood down from the Executive, but continued serving as a councillor.
The Ombudsman published his final report on the complaint on 22 July 2010. The report ran to 232 pages and appendices. In it, the Ombudsman found that there was evidence of breach of the Council’s Codes of Conduct serious enough to warrant reference to the President of the Adjudication Panel for Wales for adjudication by a case tribunal, and the matter was referred.
The proceedings before the case tribunal were lengthy, partly as a result of the Appellant’s ill health – he was diagnosed by a psychitratist appointed by the tribunal to be suffering from clinical depression, and thus unfit to give evidence – which caused a 12 month adjournment from September 2011. The tribunal published their decision in 2013, after hearing 48 witnesses over 58 days of hearings and consideration of 7000 pages of evidence. Their decision was made in three parts. On 25 June 2013, they published their Findings of Fact, a document of over 400 pages. On 19 July they made, and on 6 August 2013 published, their Breach Decision and Sanction Decision in separate documents.