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Complaint no. LA/AB/420 concerning an alleged contravention of the Councillors' Code of Conduct by Councillor John McAlpine of Argyll and Bute Council

1. Complaint number LA/AB/420 alleged a contravention of the Councillors' Code of Conduct ("the Code") by Councillor John McAlpine ("the respondent").

2. It was alleged that the respondent had contravened the Code, in particular, paragraph 2.1 with regard to Respect and paragraph 2.2 of the Code.

3. The person complaining ("the complainant"), alleged that on 16 March 2006 at the meeting of Tarbert and Skipness Community Council which he attended as a newly elected member, the respondent, attending in his capacity as the local member of Argyll and Bute Council, interrupted the start of the meeting by asking the other members of the Community Council if they thought it was appropriate that given what the complainant, in the past, had said about the manner in which the Community Council operated, he should now become a member of it. The complainant also alleges that, despite the chairman of the Community Council refusing to allow the question, the respondent continued to press his question on several occasions, finally addressing it directly to the complainant who replied "John, I am not going to answer any of your stupid questions".

4. The respondent claimed that as it was not uncommon for the chairman of the Community Council to take questions from the floor, and that after the chairman introduced the two new community councillors, (one of whom was the complainant) it was not unreasonable for him (the respondent) to pose his question. He stated that this was because the complainant had been very critical of the Community Council, its members and its constitution, and had felt so strongly on numerous occasions that he had gone to the press in order to discredit the Community Council and its members. However, he had still made it his ambition to be a member of this group which, in the past, he had constantly criticised. Bearing in mind all of this, he (the respondent) through the chair, asked if the complainant could work with the present group to make the organisation and village a better place and could this be seen as a fresh start between both. When the chairman said that perhaps it was better to let things remain in the past, the respondent stated that he re-phrased his question and asked whether, as the complainant has always claimed that he had skills that were not being utilised to the good of the village because of his non-involvement within the Community Council, as he was now a member, could he elaborate on those skills and explain how he planned to use them. The respondent stated that the chairman replied that he did not want to involve the complainant and so, to his disappointment, the respondent was denied answers to his questions.

5. The chairman of the Community Council had been appointed in 2005 upon his election as a member of the Community Council. He stated that he did not consider the respondent's conduct to be particularly offensive. He described him as speaking "forcibly" but not raising his voice. The chairman now believes that he should have brought the episode to an end more quickly by moving the meeting on to the next item of business. He advised that he did not consider complaining about the respondent's action since, although he regards the nature of the respondent's question as inappropriate, he had no concerns about the way in which the question was asked.

6. With regards to the events which took place at the meeting of the Tarbert and Skipness Community Council on 16 March 2006, I was satisfied that the content of the minute, taken at that meeting by the minute secretary, was substantially accurate and correct. Having regard to the content of the minute, and taking into account all the other information obtained in the course of this investigation, I was satisfied that the respondent's conduct could not reasonably be regarded as having come close to the type of disrespectful and discourteous behaviour which is struck at in the Councillors' Code of Conduct. Further, I did not consider that there was any evidence which would have justified me in ascribing to the respondent the motive which the complainant invited me to ascribe to him, namely to have the complainant removed from the Community Council before he had started to make any contribution to its work.

7. Having considered the information that arose from my investigation, I concluded that Councillor John McAlpine had not contravened the Councillors' Code of Conduct.

D Stuart Allan,
Chief Investigating Officer.
Forsyth House
Innova Campus
Rosyth Europarc
Rosyth
Fife
KY11 2UU
17 July 2006