Councillor handed suspension over “misleading information” during legal crowd funding campaign

A Bridgend County Borough Council councillor has been suspended for three months following an investigation by the Welsh Ombudsman that concluded he had provided misleading information to residents while raising funds for a legal challenge against a planning application.

Bridgend found that Cllr Sean Aspey had breached the Code of Conduct as a result of his fundraising efforts to oppose plans by the Ministry of Justice to consider using a local hotel to house Wales' Residential Women's Centre.

The council's finding followed an investigation by the Welsh Ombudsman which concluded that "although the Member's intentions may have been well-meaning, he provided misleading information to residents when they were asked to donate money to a fund which was not necessary, and from which they could not retrieve their money if the anticipated legal action did not take place".

It added that no planning application had actually been submitted, so there was no planning application to be challenged.

The Ombudsman noted that the councillor, who has been a Bridgend member for more than a decade, "ought to have known that the information was not correct".

Ultimately, the Ombudsman considered that the Member's conduct was such that it may amount to a breach of paragraph 6(1)(a) of the Code of Conduct, which says that councillors must not conduct themselves in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing their office or authority into disrepute.

The Standards Committee of Bridgend County Borough Council concluded that the Cllr Aspey breached paragraph 6(1)(a) of the Code of Conduct by providing misleading and inaccurate information to residents about the Ministry of Justice's plans for the hotel.

Adam Carey