We firmly believe that it’s in the public interest to report the following.
Of course, everyone, especially Cllr David Pugh, leader of the Isle of Wight council, remembers the incident at the Valentine’s Ball last year.
It leaked to public awareness when VB broke the story, transforming itself into PughTube after Cllr Pugh was caught on video camera, screaming obscenities at the partner of the Island MP in the public car park of Cowes Yacht Haven.
After David Pugh was reported to Standards for England, the council carried out an internal investigation (on the Island against the express wishes of the complainants) and Cllr Pugh was exonerated with the Isle of Wight council’s Standards Committee finding him without wrong.
Recent developments
On Tuesday this week, a letter was sent to all members of the Isle of Wight council by Carole Dennett, Andrew Turner’s partner. In her letter, she states that Andrew knows nothing of the letter being sent, as he is currently away on holiday, and would probably have advised against it if he did know.
In the letter, which you can read below, Miss Dennett is clearly unhappy with the way the investigation into an alleged breach of the code of conduct has been handled, among many other things.
Davina Fiore
Davina Fiore – head of legal at IWC is named a number of times. Separately, it’s stated that Miss Dennett had been told by a council officer (not Ms Fiore we assume) that a formal investigation was underway into her allegations, only to find out months later that nothing of the sort had happened.
Steve Beynon
Chief Executive of IWC, Steve Beynon, is explicitly named, as is Dave Burbage. There are claims that investigations carried out by him were factually incorrect.
Pugh “vitriolic”
“Dealing with Cllr Pugh has been problematic since well before the events of 12th February last year,” item six starts, with details of email exchanges with David Pugh that she describes as “vitriolic.”
Private Eye, Cllr Pugh and the Bio-Mass Plant
The involvement of David Pugh in the possible Bio-Mass Plant on the Medina River, which appeared in Private Eye is raised. Miss Dennett says, “Under such circumstances it appears to me that he (Cllr Pugh) should at the very least, have not involved himself in such private discussions involving that company …”
Who leaked Pugh – Brown email?
It is alleged that the email that is referenced in the Private Eye article, was sent between only Cllr Pugh and Cllr George Brown.
Roger Mazillius
It’s claimed that Cllr Roger Mazillius wrote to Andrew Turner after the Valentine’s Ball complaining that he had ‘received reports of the most disgraceful behaviour by your partner …” It says that not only did Cllr Mazillius refuse to talk about it, or be prepared to listen to another version of the events, but it’s claimed he refused to help Andrew Turner during his General Election campaign.
“Lack of action”
Carole Dennett finishes her letter “It is a lack of action from senior officers and Cllr Pugh’s attitude and recent false allegations about me that have caused me finally to speak out on these matters.”
Pugh and Bushby threatening legal action
If you’ve seen the brief CP report about the letter today, you’ll see that they claim David Pugh and Rachel Bushby are considering taking legal action against Miss Dennett.
When we spoke to Miss Dennett earlier this evening, she said her legal advisor had told her, you can only take legal action if what is being said is untrue.
The Letter
We were planning to run Carole’s letter, all six pages of it. However, unprompted, we received an email from David Pugh at 11.33pm this evening.
More details in our next post.
