Three Town Councillors to face No Further Action over Code of Conduct Complaints

Three Penrith Town Council members have been the subject of code of conduct complaints made against them over social media posts and predetermination in voting regarding the cooption of a spouse onto the council.

A report due to go before town councillors on Monday, sets out the three complaints made against Cllr Knaggs, Cllr Snell and Cllr Lawson.

The complaint made by a member of the public who is also a former town councillor, related to a comment allegedly made by Councillor Lawson on a social media account. The complainant considered the post to be derogatory.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer did not consider that the social media post had been made by Councillor Lawson in his official capacity as a councillor. This was despite the social media account identifying Councillor Lawson as a councillor. 

The Deputy Monitoring Officer decided as a result, the code of conduct did not apply when the comment was made and the complaint could not be considered further. 

The separate complaint made against Cllr Snell related to the co-option by the Town Council to the vacant east ward seat in July, 2023. Councillor Snell declared an interest at the meeting but is alleged by the complainant to have taken part in the ballot to appoint one of the candidates and had or should be presumed to have had a pre-determined view on the co-option. The complaint was made the Cllr Snell had a pre-determined position on the voting as the co-opted person was Cllr Snell’s partner Cllr Knaggs who was one of two candidates the council was asked to vote in a secret ballot to co-opt to fill the vacant Penrith east seat in July 2023.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer found that there was no evidence Councillor Snell had a predetermined view or that she took part in the vote. 

The third complaint made by a member of the public related to comments allegedly made on social media about that individual and a campaign. It was alleged that this was a breach of the code of conduct as Cllr Knaggs had brought the role of councillor into disrepute.

The Deputy Monitoring Officer found that despite the comments being made on a social media platform which identified Councillor Knaggs as a councillor he was not acting in his official capacity when he made the comments. Consequently, the code of conduct did not apply to the comments and the complaint was not investigated as it was not in the public interest to do so. 

It was not considered to be in the public interest to investigate the three complaints further and no further action would be taken by the deputy monitoring officer at Westmorland and Furness Council.

Penrith Town council members will be asked to consider the three separate reports and the three councillors involved in code of conduct complaints will be given the opportunity to make a response on the subject of the complaints.

Former town councillor Jeff Thomson who made the complaints against the three town councillors said "As an elected independent ward councillor, representing the ward where I live, I was unable to continue due to the animosity against me evidenced by eleven 'code of conduct' complaints from other councillors."

"Five - almost one a month - came from a co-opted councillor who I beat in the democratic election, 'I was elected, he was not elected' during my seven months on the council. "

"Penrith town councillors (co-opted, uncontested) are misusing the councillor 'code of conduct' process for personal ego and party political purposes to block free speech and control the town council and its agenda."

Mr Thomson has said that in his time as a town councillor, Cllr Knaggs made five code of conduct complaints against him along with six further code of conduct complaints made by other councillors against him.

Since April 2023 Westmorland and Furness Council has received 14 Code of Conduct Complaints against town councillors, 3 against Westmorland and Furness Councillors and 7 made against Parish councillors across the Westmorland and Furness District. The outcome of most of the complaints resulted in no further action taken against the councillors involved. The actions of Westmorland and Furness Council come in stark contrast to those of the former Eden District Council who upheld complaints made by Cllr Knaggs against another now former town councillor over personal social media posts leading claims of Human Rights breaches made against the former Eden Council.

Penrith Town Council and the three councillors have been approached for comment but have at the time of publishing have provided no comment on the complaints. We will bring you any response from Penrith Town Council or the individual councillors.

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