Saturday, January 21, 2012

Lord Mayor of Leicester could be suspended

From the Leicester Mercury:
The Lord Mayor of Leicester could be suspended after an investigation concluded he had brought the office of councillor into disrepute. 
Veteran politician Rob Wann was referred to the city's standards board over claims he had five parking tickets cancelled by senior council officers and received a free parking permit to which he was not entitled. 
Independent investigator Jon Wigmore issued a report to the city council's standards board on his findings this week. 
The law states such reports should not normally be handed to the media. 
However, a copy has been leaked to the Mercury and we have decided to publish its findings as we believe it is in the public interest to do so.
Publishing such a report can currently lead to a prison sentence under Section 63 of the Local Government Act 2000, but that section of the law is about to abolished.

Robert Wann (not to be confused with the city's elected mayor Sir Peter Soulsby) maintains his innocence and says he has done nothing wrong.

4 comments:

Simon said...

Who could possibly have leaked such a report???

Martin Brookes @oakhamuk said...

He should b banned for at least 2 years.

Jonathan Calder said...

Sorry, Simon, I have racked my brains but I cannot think of anyone who would do a thing like that.

Charlieman said...

According to the Mercury: "The investigator who compiled the 400-page report charged Leicester City Council £375 a day for his services and took the equivalent of 15 full days to carry out the investigation."

£375 a day sounds cheap for a consultant but the result/exercise has not been seriously challenged.

Martin Brookes must wait a bit before announcing sentence.