Tameside Council defends scenes in stormy meeting – but cannot comment on ‘bullying’ claims

TAMESIDE Council has backed the stormy handling of a councillor’s resignation from its ruling Labour group amid bullying claims.

But it could not respond to accusations made by Sam Gosling.

The Stalybridge North ward representative is now an independent after walking away from the majority party over what he sees as unacceptable conduct.

He wrote: “Over the last four-and-a-half years as a member of the Labour group, I have been persistently bullied and treated in a way that has had a detrimental effect on my mental and physical health.

The Stalybridge North ward representative is now an independent after walking away from the majority party over what he sees as unacceptable conduct.

“I have been left unable to attend meetings due to anxiety and stress.

“I have had various whip meetings in an attempt to resolve these issues. Sadly, on each occasion the issues have been minimised and at times even trivialised.

“As a victim, I should not have been blamed but this has been the reality, with the councillor who I have had cause to complain about on multiple occasions, unbelievably in my opinion. being promoted since.”

Conservative Liam Billington attempted to read his statement, only to be cut off by chair Cllr Joe Kitchen and see his audio feed cut.

Cllr Liam Billington

That and video footage of Cllr Yvonne Cartey banging a table as the opposition member attempted to speak have been slammed by many members of the public, with even Labour supporters hitting out at the image it portrayed.

But when asked a number of questions by The Correspondent, Tameside Council defended the scenes, pointing the finger firmly at Cllrs Gosling and Billington.

And the way the resignation was done did not abide with the law (wording used by Tameside Council)

In a lengthy statement pointing out the council constitution, it said: “Standing order 25 outlines conduct at the meeting and states that:

“(1) If the chair calls the meeting to order or rises during a debate, members shall be silent and any member then standing shall resume their seat and the council shall be silent.

“(2) If a member behaves improperly or offensively or deliberately obstructs business, the chair may direct the Member to be silent.

“(3) If the member continues such behaviour, the chair may direct that either the member leave the meeting or that the meeting be adjourned for a specified period

“Additionally standing order 22 (13) re speeches at council:

Chair of Council business, Cllr Joe Kitchen

“The Chair of Council Business (or other person presiding) shall have the right to determine that there has been appropriate debate on any item under consideration and shall call on the appropriate executive member to give a final response on the item.

“The chair asked Cllr Billington to cease reading out the resignation of another member as he had no authority in law to provide it as the resigning member is obliged by law to give it themselves and not via a proxy.

“Standing order 6 says that:

“7. A person is to be treated as having ceased to be a Member of a Political Group when:-…..
(ii) s/he has notified the Chief Executive in writing that s/he no longer wishes to be
treated as a Member of the Group;

“Such resignation was not received in advance of the meeting, which commenced at 5pm and so the chair was unable to check the veracity of the resignation and importantly it has to be provided by the member themselves personally.

“Therefore, the chair quite properly asked Cllr Billington not to continue with reading out the unverified resignation.

“Despite three requests to cease and despite the chair standing up in accordance with protocol, Cllr Billington in breach of the Standing Orders continued to disrupt the meeting.

“The chair asked all members to be silent, which included Cllr Cartey who was protesting by banging the table in relation to Cllr Billington’s failure to comply with the requests.

“Accordingly, as member conduct was not acceptable, the chair suspended the meeting until Cllr Billington ceased and complied with the council’s standing orders.

“In suspending the meeting, the streaming of the meeting ceased to continue. The chair’s authority in the room is absolute.”

Cllr Gosling spelled out in no uncertain terms the way he feels he was treated by a colleague and how the Stalybridge and Hyde Constituency Labour Party (CLP) reacted to it.

He added: “I can no longer, in good faith, be a member of a party or part of a group or CLP that has such little respect for mental health issues and has failed in its duty of care towards one of its members.”

Tameside Council insisted it is, ‘not in a position to comment on the apparent allegations made by Cllr Gosling within political parties.’

And the Stalybridge and Hyde CLP said the claims are a matter for, ‘Tameside’s Labour Group with the executive leader, Cllr Ged Cooney, as the CLP is a separate Labour Party body so would have no knowledge or involvement with anyone being brought before the Whips.’

It added: “Any complaints from or against any member proper to the Stalybridge and Hyde Constituency Labour Party are initially considered by the executive and then reported at our monthly All Member Meetings at which our MP is also present.

“All complaints are considered and dealt with strictly under Labour Party Rules,”

2 Replies to “Tameside Council defends scenes in stormy meeting – but cannot comment on ‘bullying’ claims”

  1. Name the councillor that he accuses of bullying. Mind you another councillor resigned from the cabinet no word on that

  2. Typical Labour. They continue to call anybody to the right of centre a fascist, whilst carrying on with their own insidious brand of fascism. Sadly the pig ignorant voters of Tameside continue to vote for them.

Comments are closed.