Luton councillor tweeted about 'overpaid people at the town hall' with 'crazy schemes, ignoring the real world'

A senior council officer made a formal complaint over the tweet by Labour Challney councillor Tom Shaw, which was investigated by the local authority.

It was posted after a committee meeting, in October 2019, in which the executive was discussing a smoking ban in St George's Square, as part of a public health initiative.

Several choices were made by the executive, including consultation over whether St George's Square should be smoke free.

The following day, councillor Shaw, a smoker, posted his tweet to a select number of 306 followers.

He tweeted: "I honestly thought this was an April Fools' joke. But it seems like yet again we have overpaid people at the town hall trying to think of crazy schemes and ignoring the real world."

Councillor Shaw, executive member for housing and environment, was then asked to remove the tweet by council chief executive Robin Porter the next day.

But it was not deleted from the closed Twitter account until ten days later, after a request from Labour council leader Hazel Simmons.

A complaint was made by the council's director of public health, Gerry Taylor, who argued that councillor Shaw had breached the members' code of conduct on two specific counts.

The objection was "the Tweet showed a lack of respect for the complainant, the public health team and the communications team".

It also "called the complainant's professionalism into account by making derogatory comments about council staff and decisions publicly".

A local adjudication panel, which is also a sub-committee of the council's standards committee, met yesterday (Tuesday).

In a statement read by Conservative Icknield councillor Jeff Petts, chairman of the panel, he said: "It was decided on the balance of probabilities the code wasn't engaged.

"The brief reason for this was that the tweet complained of was on a private Twitter account and contained a clear disclaimer.

"So, on balance, the panel couldn't find that the subject member [Cllr Shaw] was acting, or claiming to have acted or gave the impression that he was acting as a voice of the council."

External investigator Georgina Butcher told the panel councillor Shaw, when asked by her, said he would not apologise to the officer or the council.

She also spoke to two other senior council officers Laura Church and Nicola Monk, who described it as councillor Shaw's "personal style", of which "they didn't approve", but recognised it as his particular manner.

"The content of the tweet showed disrespect for others," she added. "It was aimed at senior council officers.

"Therefore, my findings are councillor Shaw did breach the local authority's elected members' code in two areas."

Councillor Shaw referred to the disclaimer he had on the Twitter account and said: "This shouldn't even be a standards board (issue).

"A member has got the right to express their concerns.

"Two other council officers of the same level have no problem with it. There were no complaints from the public at all.

"I believe the council is acting wrongly. I have got the right to freedom of speech."

Independent person for the hearing Chris Fogden said: "I regret that councillor Shaw felt unable to offer an early apology. I think that would have been helpful.

"I don't think he did breach the code of conduct on the balance of what's presented to us."