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Richmond councillor Tony Arbour suspended for leak (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)
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Richmond councillor Tony Arbour suspended for leak
11:13am Friday 16th October 2009
The borough’s representative on the London Assembly has been suspended from his role as a councillor for revealing Richmond Council spent £100,000 on a field it could have bought for £1 eight years before.
Councillor Tony Arbour, who is the Assembly Member for south-west London, was suspended from his duties for 28 days by Richmond Council’s standards committee on Tuesday, following an investigation.
Trevor Pugh, formerly Richmond Council director of environment, made a complaint about a press release issued by Coun Arbour, explaining the authority was to spend £100,000 on buying the field in Broom Road, Teddington, when it was offered it for £1 in 2001.
After the inquiry, Coun Arbour was found to have breached paragraph four of the Members’ Code of Conduct.
His suspension will begin on Sunday.
A council spokesman said: “Coun Arbour, ward member for Hampton Wick, has been suspended due to his disclosure of confidential information prior to the completion of the purchase of land in Broom Road in February 2009.”
Coun Arbour said the information he revealed was in the public domain and a matter of public interest.
He added the transaction had now gone through.
The borough’s representative on the London Assembly has been suspended from his role as a councillor for revealing Richmond Council spent £100,000 on a field it could have bought for £1 eight years before.
Councillor Tony Arbour, who is the Assembly Member for south-west London, was suspended from his duties for 28 days by Richmond Council’s standards committee on Tuesday, following an investigation.
Trevor Pugh, formerly Richmond Council director of environment, made a complaint about a press release issued by Coun Arbour, explaining the authority was to spend £100,000 on buying the field in Broom Road, Teddington, when it was offered it for £1 in 2001.
After the inquiry, Coun Arbour was found to have breached paragraph four of the Members’ Code of Conduct.
His suspension will begin on Sunday.
A council spokesman said: “Coun Arbour, ward member for Hampton Wick, has been suspended due to his disclosure of confidential information prior to the completion of the purchase of land in Broom Road in February 2009.”
Coun Arbour said the information he revealed was in the public domain and a matter of public interest.
He added the transaction had now gone through.
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Your Say YourRichmond
gertrude grendal, Barnes says...
4:32pm Fri 16 Oct 09
gertrude grendal, Barnes says...
4:37pm Fri 16 Oct 09
Richmond Council’s standards committee? Names please.
Phillip Taylor, Phillip Taylor says...
5:08pm Fri 16 Oct 09
Councillor Bennett Member Expected,
Simon Colton Member Expected,
Margaret Hill Chair Expected,
Councillor Jones Member Expected,
Richard Mellor Officer Expected,
Councillor Stanier Member Expected.
I would add that the members must have had advice from officials although the papers in this case have been censored so we cannot see the 'charges'.
Tania Mathias, Hampton Wick says...
7:14pm Fri 16 Oct 09
tmblaiklock, teddington says...
9:25pm Fri 16 Oct 09
When will Councillors, like MPs, not learn that the "truth will out" before long.
ratcatcher, Teddington says...
9:30am Sat 17 Oct 09
I will shake you be the hand when i next see you in Teddington.
Your action only go to show that the people who speak and do the right thing,are the people who should be in power in Richmond.
The current bunch of yellow perils are no longer fit for purpose.
In Teddington you are never able to contact the 3 monkey
StephenKnight :
When i grow up i want to be Vince Cable.
James Mumford:
Sorry I have my own problems, and no longer live in Teddington.
Ellengorn
What day is it today ?
Tony keep up the good work.
Barry Woodward, Barnes says...
3:54pm Sat 17 Oct 09
Firstly - why is the text of the article repeated twice on this page of the website?!
Secondly, just from reading this article there are lots of (unreported) reasons why the Council might not have wanted to buy the land 8 years (quite a long time) ago i.e. no use for it, might have had to spend on upkeep or clearing it (H&S etc), lack of a crystal ball etc etc
However, what seems inexcusable and most damging to their reputation is to discipline this man for mentioning sometthing that is apparently in the public domain anyway. Can't their PR people ever learn how this type of response makes them look? A simple statement explaining the history of the reference would presumably have caused no ripple in the water, but behaving like this just makes them look like they have something to cover up.
As they have chosen this course of action, the most obvious next question then is what?
CSDLondon, Hampton Wick says...
11:05pm Mon 19 Oct 09
Straightforward, clear answers anyone? Councillors? Council officials? Anyone?
MacGregor, Teddington says...
10:08pm Tue 20 Oct 09
Cllr Arbour has exposed yet another example of the Illiberal Undemocrats’ profligacy. When the Illiberal Undemocrats were booted out of office in 2002 they left a ‘black hole’ of £60m – and – if the council had been a private company – it would have been left on the verge of bankruptcy.
It’s about time the Illiberal Undemocrat Robber Barons of Richmond were held to account for being tax-guzzlers.
ChrisSquire, Twickenham says...
1:39pm Wed 21 Oct 09
libdems.org.uk/news/
002366/tory_councill
or_and_former_leader
_suspended_from_coun
cil_for_28_days.html and follow the links from there.
Barry Woodward, Barnes says...
2:03pm Wed 21 Oct 09
MacGregor, Teddington says...
11:38pm Wed 21 Oct 09
The link provided was broken but – having navigated my way round the site to find the article – like Barry Woodward, Barnes – I am still in the dark.
Considering the sum involved was £100,000 – and Cllr Arbour pointed out it could have been £999,999 cheaper – this Lib Dem council owe an explanation to the council taxpayers why they didn’t take advantage of the £1 price.
BTW – As Chris Squire so helpfully gave a link to the local Lib Dem website – do check out the language used in some of the stories. It is an eye-opener, and reveals the Robber Barons of Richmond are the Neo-Nasty party.
ChrisSquire, Twickenham says...
10:02am Thu 22 Oct 09
j3zl6k.
The decision of the standards committee was unanimous; it has 6 independent members and 5 councillors . The purchase price would have been published once the deal was done. Publishing it during the negotiation might have scuppered the deal if a speculator had offered more, unconditionally, as a gamble. They had already made higher offers but the council had said it would challenge the legality of any sale. The site is worth nothing without planning permission but they were willing to buy it as gamble on future changes. The £1 price was for a lease to convert the site into an artificial hockey field .
The Royal Canoe Club received the site from nothing from a housing association when the rest of the site was built on. I do not know why it was given to them rather than anyone else. It was intended that it be kept as a public open space but the RCC tired of looking after it and decided instead to try to sell it, perhaps to force the hand of the council. The £100,000 price was offered to enable the RCC trustees to be satisfied that they had done their duty to the charity to get full value for the site and to avoid wasteful legal proceedings.
It is a messy story but the upshot is that the residents of Hampton Wick have a fine new park despite the efforts of their elected councillor to wreck the deal. And Cllr Arbour, not much liked to begin with, is even more out of favour with his fellow Tory councillors than ever, as his reckless conduct has undermined their claim to be ready to take over the council next May.
MacGregor, Teddington says...
9:20pm Thu 22 Oct 09
What is even more curious is Mr Squire’s reference to “The site is worth nothing without planning permission but they were willing to buy it as gamble on future changes”. So this site is currently worthless – but the Robber Barons of Richmond have spent £100,000 of our money on a gamble! Moreover, what are they thinking of doing with it – Mr Squire mentions a public park – which surely doesn’t require planning permission. Or – is this open land that the Lib Dems are then planning to build on – for which they have form vis-à-vis their now on-hold plans for Twickenham Riverside. So can we look forward to them giving planning permission to throw up even more housing in a borough that they have already grossly overdeveloped. And more housing brings ever more of their enemy – cars.
Suspended: Richmond councillor Tony Arbour, far right, is in hot water after revealing Richmond Council spent £100,000 on a field it could have bought for £1 eight years before
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Phillip Taylor, Phillip Taylor says...
1:05pm Fri 16 Oct 09
It just illustrates that the 'let's get even' committee which the 'Standards Board' structure has created should be abolished and the Tories will do just that.
It seems that it is ok for officials and political opponents to challenge elected members whilst voters have no way of criticising our local government officials as there is no transparent complaints mechanism and if councillors criticise them, they get suspended.
There should be a 'Standards Board for Officials' as well so they can be brought to account by taxpayers.
And it is time for repeal of this type of 'commercial in confidence' privacy marked documents which are used to hide things from the tax payer which we should know about. Whatever happened to investigative journalism under New Labour!
It also seems that there is no freedom of speech anymore, except in the House of Commons where privilege still exists- but even Damien Green MP got arrested on trumped up charges with the agreement of the then Labour Speaker, 'Lord' Michael Martin. Shame on them all for acting like children and hiding information from us.