A Wigan councillor has been found guilty of breaching his council’s code of conduct after yelling at a Hindley Green resident over car parking.
Robert Brierley, independent ward member for Hindley Green, became embroiled in a parking dispute between neighbours, leaving complainants to claim he showed bias towards their neighbour, who they claimed was a friend of the councillor.
Cllr Brierley also attended the place of work of one of the complainants and requested that his supervisor contact him as he wished to speak to him.
One complainant, who cannot be named, said: “I would expect Cllr Brierley to treat his constituents in a fair and professional way.
“It is his duty to represent the people. After all, it is us who vote councillors in. Instead, I feel that he abused his position and behaved appallingly.
“I am happy that this councillor is a minority and not all councillors act in the way he does.
“After a long process I and my family can now move on from this. I’d like to thank Wigan Council’s standards board for resolving this issue.”
This week’s private hearing, which took place on Tuesday, was the fourth of six due to be held each week until early-November against Cllr Brierley, who failed to attend.
The panel heard evidence from an independent witness confirming these claims.
After hearing the evidence, the panel felt that in becoming involved in a heated exchange in a public place and, in raising his voice to one of the complainants, Councillor Brierley had brought his office and the council into disrepute and ruled he had breached paragraph five of the Council Code of Conduct.
The decision on sanctions will be deferred until next month.
But Wigan Council do not have the ability to sack Cllr Brierley after the coalition government abolished the Standards Board for England as part of the Localism Bill in 2012.
Image courtesy of Oli987 with thanks
