Conduct case against Wisbech councillor is thrown out with no further action

A Wisbech councillor is to face no action over alleged breaches of Fenland Council's code of conduct.

A pre-sift meeting held earlier this week decided Councillor Steve Tierney had no case to answer following a complaint about comments made on a thread on his personal Facebook page.

It is the third time the Wisbech councillor has been reported for alleged misconduct, and the third time the pre-sift meeting has decided not to proceed with the case.

Coun Tierney is now questioning the need for the conduct committee and claims that for members, like himself, it is a means of launching a politically motivated attack, aimed at damaging his reputation as a councillor.

He said: "I never expected the case to go any further. I know I haven't broken any rules, but it is still unpleasant to have these allegations made against you.

"Basically these allegations were trumped up nonsense, but they can still cause damage to my reputation as a councillor. I understand why people keep making them. They want to try to prevent me being re-elected.

"I had notification of the result of the pre-sift yesterday (Thursday) and I wanted to let people know the result. On a personal level I question the need for a conduct committee, because if a person does something illegal or does use malicious or hateful language then they are matters for the police.

"All the conduct committee allows is for people to make spurious complaints, that damage reputations and are in my opinion largely politically motivated."

However, he did welcome the recent changes in the rules, which allow the legal officer in conjunction with the conduct committee chairman to throw out any complaints they deem as not breaching the code before they go any further, and also discourage cases being made public in the press before they have been properly looked out.

"I think the new rules are better. The reason I was not subject to them was because the complaint was made about me before the full council had approved the changes, but I do think they are a better system," said Coun Tierney.

The pre-sift hearing would normally be chaired by the chairman of the conduct committee, but because Councillor David Topgood, who holds the role, is a personal friend of Councillor Tierney's he stood down on this occasion.

The hearing would have been attended by the council's legal officer and both the independent person and deputy independent person.