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Councillor ousted for helping a resident wins appeal

On 16th December I was disqualified from my position as East Riding of Yorkshire Councillor. This was the result of a 2-year battle against red tape surrounding a very important issue.

For the facts of exactly what happened, and what they think I did wrong, please see the Series of Events page.

Appeal

I lodged an appeal against the decision of the Standards Board. In the 17 years I've been elected as Councillor for my area, until recently I never once thought that I'd be removed from the council for serving the residents of my area to the best of my ability. But that's exactly what's happened, and I refuse to allow myself and all of 2,500+ people that voted for me, and those that didn't, be let down so badly by the system.

Appeal outcome in brief on 26 July 2005. Prior to this my solicitors, who had already prepared a strong defence, received notification on the Friday before from the Standards Board to say that they would be dropping their arguments in the case and therefore would not be attending the hearing.

At the High Court of Justices The Strand, London Judge J Collins quickly accepted that disqualification in this case was wrong. He concluded that I unknowingly broke 3 of East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s rules and accepted that I learnt from that experience and with that went on to prescribe only a 3 month suspension back-dated to 16^th December 2004.

Whilst it was possible to present further arguments which could have led to me being not suspended at all, this could not have been done without the Judge referring the case back to the Standards Board. This also would have meant the case would have dragged on for weeks with ever increasing legal costs.

He also agreed for a submission for all my costs to be paid back pending final consent of the Standards Board within the next 2 weeks.

This now means I can continue my role as an East Riding Councillor from the day of the Court hearing.

A BIG BIG THANKS goes to all my family, friends and supporters and those who donated cash to make it possible to fight this appeal. Plus a special thanks goes to both my solicitor Dan Rosenberg and barrister Mark Vinall who prepared such an excellent defence. May god be with you all.