Councillor’s threat to drag man over table

Feb 16 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal

AN angry parish chairman threatened to drag a council colleague over the table and invited him outside into the car park as tempers flared during a heated meeting in a Northumberland village, an investigation has been told.

Joe Sennett – who chairs Widdrington Station and Stobswood Parish Council – blew his top and became aggressive towards fellow councillor John Brown after being accused of talking over another member and failing to allow him to speak, the probe found.

Coun Sennett rose from his seat, said that he would drag Coun Brown across the table and told him that if he had a problem he would deal with him in the car park.

However, both men then sat down and the meeting continued before ending shortly afterwards.

The incident, during an informal parish council meeting held in October, resulted in a formal complaint by Coun Brown to the Standards Board for England, alleging that Coun Sennett had failed to treat him with respect and had breached the council’s code of conduct.

The complaint was investigated by Castle Morpeth Borough Council’s deputy monitoring officer David Bowman, who has concluded that Coun Sennett should be written to and advised that his chairing of the meeting was sadly lacking and tantamount to maladministration.

In a report to the borough’s Standards Panel next week, Mr Bowman says: “His outburst of temper was unbecoming to say the least and, if repeated, anger as such could become bullying and intolerable.”

However, Mr Bowman has also concluded that the allegation that Coun Sennett breached the parish council’s code of conduct is not made out and recommends no further statutory action is taken.

The incident happened after Coun Brown asked Coun Sennett three times to stop talking over another member and allow him to speak.

Coun Sennett told the investigation he was continually being interrupted while giving a report to the meeting and was not aware that another member wanted to speak. He dismissed the claim that he threatened to drag Coun Brown over the table as “rubbish” but admitted inviting him into the car park to sort things out.

He claimed the situation arose because of “provocation and disrespect” shown to him as chairman by Coun Brown and two other members at meetings.

Coun Brown said yesterday he was unable to comment at this stage.