A TAMESIDE councillor has been found to have breached the code of conduct for the second time this year.
Liam Billington has now apologised for comments made on Facebook relating to Andrew Richardson.
A complaint about comments in January 2025 received by previous monitoring officer (PMO) Aileen Johnson was referred to an independent investigation.
And a meeting of the standards committee on Thursday, September 25 will be told the investigator found Cllr Billington to be in breach of the code on two counts, respect and bullying.
Documents show an agreed outcome from a meeting on August 22 saw the Conservative member agree to take down the social media post on the basis statements made were incorrect, misleading and in breach of the code of conduct.
He also said he would apologise to Mr Richardson in person and on Facebook.
A report states Mr Richardson, of Hyde, ‘felt upset and humiliated by the post, that the post was an unjustified personal attack on him.’
It adds: “Councillors are able to express, challenge and disagree with views, ideas and opinions in a robust but civil manner.
“However, personal attacks on a person in a public arena are not acceptable under the Code.”
The investigator found Stalybridge South representative Cllr Billington had overstepped the boundary of acceptable behaviour.
It added the comments amounted to bullying behaviour and, ‘were a clear attempt to denigrate and undermine,’ Mr Richardson, who was identified as C, ‘by including comments about C’s conduct and his job, which were an unjustified attack on C’s character.’
Paperwork also states that Cllr Billington, identified as SM, did take the Facebook post down but did not post the apology on Facebook.
It adds: “C raised concerns that SM had not posted his apology on Facebook.
“However, the PMO considered that publication would be achieved in any event, and therefore failure to do so was not sufficient to trigger a costly hearing.”
This is not the first time Cllr Billington has come to the attention of Tameside Council’s standards committee this year.
In June, a hearing found he had breached the code of conduct four times with a controversial social media post relating to disorder in the Harehills area of Leeds.
He was formally censured by the council in July, yet he will appeal to the Local Government Ombudsman and told the panel he would not attend any diversity training he may be ordered to carry out.