OnTheWight has been in touch with sources within the Island Independent group following the Isle of Wight council Executive reshuffle announced yesterday evening.
They advise that despite an email sent by Cllr Richard Priest and Cllr Jon Gilbey this morning to all councillors stating they had been dismissed from the group, our source says this is definitely not the case. They confirm that neither councillor has been dismissed from the Group.
It’s of note that Richard Priest’s name does not now appear on IWC list of Executive members, but Jon Gilbey’s still does. The page has clearly been updated since Tuesday as Cllr Fuller’s name is now included.
Gilbey offered to keep his place on Executive
OnTheWight has been told that although Cllr Priest has been ‘sacked’ from the Executive, that Cllr Gilbey had been given until Sunday to decide whether he would like to continue in a role on the Executive Committee.
Email circulated to all councillors
In Cllr Priest and Gilbey’s email, they assert that serious allegations have been made by the leader about them in relation to their conduct over the Capital Programme Contingency Budget report.
At the Executive meeting on Tuesday, the Monitoring Officer, Davina Fiore, confirmed she had previously informed the two councillors they would have to declare an interest on the report when it came before the Executive. She explained that both councillors had a close personal interest with the owners of Rush Close, Shanklin – an item being considered for council expenditure.
Therefore, both left the chamber whilst the item was being discussed.
Reported themselves
The email goes on to say that both councillors have reported themselves to the Standards Committee,
They say,
“Given the seriousness of the allegations made by the Leader, in respect of our conduct over the Capital Contingency Report and our support of the Select Committee motion (to be debated at the next Full Council Meeting) we have decided to refer ourselves to the Standards Committee to enable a full investigation of the Leaders allegations, and we would ask the Leader to share all emails and related documents with all members.
“In particular, we request the email of 20th August 2014, from a senior Council Officer, and our email of 29th August 2014, to all Group members: you will note both of the emails were circulated prior to the recent meetings of Scrutiny and Executive Committees, and before ‘unattributed rumours’ regarding leadership were in circulation.”
This committee was abolished in 2012 and replaced with a system where any complaints are dealt with by the Monitoring Officer.
The email in full
Below is the email sent by Cllrs Priest and Gilbey to all members this morning.
Dear colleagues
As you will appreciate, the leader of the IW Council dismissed Cllr Priest and myself from the Independent Group, as well as the Executive, and we are copying the Monitoring Officer into this email, and given the decision of the Leader, to clarify where we will be expected to sit in the Chamber at the next meeting of the Full Council, and what office accommodation will be made available to us (unfortunately, the Leader was unable to provide this information when he dismissed us at 4pm yesterday afternoon).
As you may also appreciate, given that the Group unanimously made the decision to appoint us to our Executive posts at a meeting on the 10th March 2014, we have asked (and this email confirms this request) the Leader to clarify why he has dismissed us, to provide minutes of the Group meeting that decided on our dismissal in our absence, and the Group rules that were applied to dismiss us from the Group, and any rights of Appeal that apply (and when these policies were agreed openly and transparently): we recognise the Leader of the Council can dismiss members of the Executive, but we understood that all of the Group shared our commitment to the Bell Principles and that the Group were inclusive of all members being a part of the decision making process, as was highlighted by the removal of all delegated decision making.
Given the seriousness of the allegations made by the Leader, in respect of our conduct over the Capital Contingency Report and our support of the Select Committee motion (to be debated at the next Full Council Meeting) we have decided to refer ourselves to the Standards Committee to enable a full investigation of the Leaders allegations, and we would ask the Leader to share all emails and related documents with all members.
In particular, we request the email of 20th August 2014, from a senior Council Officer, and our email of 29th August 2014, to all Group members: you will note both of the emails were circulated prior to the recent meetings of Scrutiny and Executive Committees, and before ‘unattributed rumours’ regarding leadership were in circulation.
We were both elected without any political labels and will not be joining any political party (whatever their colour), and are committed to be open and transparent in Public Office, as well as in the privileged position we have as Shanklin Town and County Councillors, and we deeply regret that some of our former colleagues appear to have forgotten this principle.
We would like to thank all of our friends and colleagues for their messages of support at this time, and we look forward to an early reply to the issues raised above.
Best Regards
Cllr Jon Gilbey and Cllr Richard Priest
(Shanklin Central and Shanklin South)
Image: © Simon Haytack
