Statement on Councillor resignations
Cllrs Barry Phelps and Mark Daley resigned from the Council
yesterday (5 July 2010) following an investigation into the misuse
of the Council’s email system to transmit inappropriate
material.
The investigation was in response to a complaint made last month
(June 2010) by a resident and revealed that Barry Phelps had sent a
number of unacceptable emails and that Mark Daley had been a
recipient. The email content was reported to the police and their
investigation has not yet concluded.
Responding to the resignations, the Leader of the Council, Cllr
Sir Merrick Cockell, said:
“Both have been dedicated and effective ward councillors.
However, once it was established that unacceptable emails had been
sent out on the Council’s system by one Councillor and had gone
unchallenged by the other, both decided that they should
resign.
“I believe they have reached the right decision in the interests
of the Council and the wards they represented"