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Rutland councillors could face harassment injunction | |
(about 14 hours later) | |
A Conservative-controlled council is to seek an injunction against three of its councillors for alleged harassment. | |
Rutland County Council has voted to set aside £90,000 for legal action against independents Nick Wainwright, Richard Gale and David Richardson. | |
The three members of the Rutland Anti-Corruption group (RACP) are accused of harassing senior officers in a series of requests for information. | |
Mr Richardson denied the charges and said he did not fear legal action. | |
In October, law firm Bevan Brittan was brought in to advise the council over a series of email requests by the RACP for information about the authority's actions. | |
It recommended that action could be taken on the grounds of harassment, and that the authority could sue for defamation under the Localism Act 2011 - because several of the requests were made in emails to every councillor. | |
'Lance this boil' | |
At Thursday night's meeting, the council deferred a decision on potential defamation action, but agreed to seek the injunction to prevent harassment of chief executive Helen Briggs and other officers. | |
It agreed to allocate £90,000 for this purpose, and also to ensure that all communications from the group to the council be sent to a single email contact. | |
In addition, it said it would support the chief executive and other officers if they wanted to take personal legal action against RACP for harassment. | |
Speaking after the meeting, council leader Roger Begy said: "This is not an evening that this council wants. This is not an evening this council should be having." | |
He added: "We needed to lance this boil, that our officers had felt very threatened." | |
'Statutory right' | |
Mr Richardson denied "bombarding the council with requests" and said he was not worried about legal action. | |
He added: "You do not worry if you believe you stand on the side of truth. We are more than happy to share all the information with anyone, in any court. | |
"The problem we have had is that the county council has not been prepared to share the information, that we think we have a statutory right to know, with us." | |
Correction 11 January 2013: This story has been amended to make clear that the action the council is taking is to seek a legal injunction for harassment. |