Two bullying West Rainton parish councillors banned

Oct 15 2009 by Neil McKay, The Journal

APPALLING behaviour by two parish councillors was condemned last night as it was revealed how they harangued a colleague who was mourning his wife and even questioned the £20 cost of a wreath.

Now Ian Fawcett and Colin Clark – who is also a magistrate – have been banned from office for six months and five months respectively after being found guilty of failing to adhere to the local government code of conduct.

The pair, both Liberal Democrats, who sit on the parish council at West Rainton, near Durham, were also judged responsible for hounding parish clerk Elizabeth Briggs out of office.

Mrs Briggs resigned after 28 years, saying Mr Fawcett and Mr Clark had made her life intolerable.

The findings were made following a hearing by Durham County Council’s Standards Committee Panel, made up of magistrate Dorothy Winter, county councillor Joe Armstrong and parish councillor Terry Batson.

West Rainton parish council chairman Jeff Morland, whose wife Sandra died, aged 56, after losing her battle against cancer last year, accused the pair of “trying to score political points when I was at my most vulnerable”.

Mr Morland, of School Avenue, West Rainton, who has helped raise tens of thousands of pounds for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) following the sudden death of his son Levon, aged 22, seven years ago, said: “This whole episode has been a nightmare.