A formal complaint has been made against a councillor after a controversial comment at a Wirral Council meeting.
Conservative Cllr David Burgess-Joyce currently represents Greasby, Frankby and Irby but is running as a candidate for Heswall in this year’s elections after he was deselected in Greasby last year.
During Wirral Council's budget setting meeting, Cllr Burgess-Joyce made the allegation the Liberal Democrats had taken “bribes” in order to support the plans.
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Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Carubia who was speaking at the time asked whether that was an actual allegation, to which Cllr Burgess-Joyce responded: “I apologise for having a debate. No, parties are oiled with regards to...”
The comments led to Mayor Jeff Green interrupting the meeting to ask Cllr Burgess-Joyce if he had apologised. Cllr Burgess-Joyce said he had apologised for speaking across the floor.
Cllr Carubia called for Cllr Burgess-Joyce to apologise for the “bribes” comment and Cllr Burgess-Joyce said: “I unreservedly, is that the word we are looking for, apologise. Everybody in the room including us is lovely and couldn’t possibly do anything like that.”
Cllr Carubia said: “I am still waiting for an apology for the first thing he said. He hasn’t apologised for that at all.”
Wirral’s Liberal Democrats said they’ve now filed a formal complaint against Cllr Burgess-Joyce about the comments, in particular the allegation of bribes, with councillors asking for a full apology at the next full council meeting.
Cllr Carubia told the ECHO: “I was annoyed at the time. I know what he said, he started off saying about bribes but I think what made things worse was that he didn’t apologise but he then had a second go that the Lib Dems were oiled. He didn’t actually apologise for that."
He said he’d received comments on social media since the meeting, adding: “I am really cross. I think it is difficult being in the public eye and I didn’t want to make a big song and dance about it but you can’t let people accuse you of things especially when it is in public. It is out of order.
“If he had apologised about it at the time, that would have been the end of it but he was just being flippant and horrible about the whole thing.”
Cllr Burgess-Joyce said: ‘As to the allegation of comments made in the chamber I do think it odd the Liberal Democrats voted with Labour on the budget, but I did publicly apologise unreservedly three times. Other than that I do not know what is required.”
Cllr Phil Gilchrist, leader of Wirral's Liberal Democrat group, said: “The idea any members of my group took bribes during this process is baseless and without foundation. Members were motivated by their desire to take account of public concern and residents’ interests, nothing else.
“Cllr Carubia courteously and with due restraint asked for an explanation from Cllr Burgess-Joyce. He expressly sought clarification and asked if this was an actual allegation or not. No apology was delivered, to Council, for the word heard by many members.”
“We have referred the issue, with a formal complaint about those words, to the Council’s Monitoring Officer for investigation. We earnestly hope that Councillor Burgess-Joyce recognises the serious nature of his remarks in time to apologise to the next full meeting of Council.”
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