A Bridgend town & county councillor has won a partial victory in an appeal against his suspension.
In May 2024, Independent Cllr. Steven Bletsoe (in his capacity as town councillor for Morfa) was suspended from Bridgend Town Council for six months by BCBC’s Standards Committee.
The dispute revolved around the accuracy of minutes which recorded an argument between the Clerk of the town council and Cllr. Bletsoe’s wife Cllr. Freya Bletsoe – who has since resigned from the town council – over the unveiling of blue plaques.
The Public Services Ombudsman concluded that Steven Bletsoe had attempted to “influence the outcome of the meeting” by failing to properly declare a personal interest when seeking to make changes to the minutes. The Standards Committee subsequently handed down a punishment.
Tribunal satisfied Cllr. Bletsoe was ensuring minutes’ accuracy
While not appealing the breaches of the Code of Conduct itself, Cllr. Bletsoe appealed the length of the suspension to the Adjudication Panel for Wales. He argued a six-month suspension – the maximum period of suspension available to a Standards Committee – was “egregious”.
A public hearing was held with the findings recently published (pdf).
The submission by the Public Services Ombudsman office attempted to justify the lengthy suspension. The submission pointed to Cllr. Bletsoe’s years of experience as a town councillor (implying he should have been aware of his responsibilities around declaring interests) and his (seeming) lack of remorse.
The Appeal Panel concluded that the personal interests breach “was not clear cut” as there had been no attempt on Cllr. Bletsoe’s part to delete or remove minutes, only alter them. They also commented that if the minutes had been recorded “in a more neutral manner (by the Clerk)….then it was unlikely they would have been controversial or that a Code breach would have occurred”.
In light of the many positive character references received, and high regard Cllr. Bletsoe is held in as a councillor, the Panel concluded that breaches were due to ignorance of the Code of Conduct rather than deliberate. They were satisfied Cllr. Bletsoe was solely trying to ensure that the minutes were accurate.
The Panel agreed that the six-month suspension was excessive as the breaches were not of a particularly serious nature. They recommended the suspension be cut to ten weeks, with their recommendation sent back to BCBC’s Standards Committee for approval.
