Cllr Nigel Porter cleared of standards complaint

I have heard that Cllr Nigel Porter, who represents the Aylestone Ward in Leicester (after switching from the Tories to the Lib Dems before the local elections in May) was last week cleared by the Standards Committee of Leicester City Council of a supposed data protection breach. This was such a major issue for then Tory Group Leader, Cllr Ross Grant, that Nigel was driven out of the local Leicester Tory Party.

The Leicester Mercury ran an article entitled “Ousted Tory defects to fight seat for Lib Dems” on 26th March 2011 which allowed Cllr Ross Grant to say the following about his colleague

"It’s unfortunate but the group took the decision to deselect Nigel Porter because we believe he failed to live up to the standards expected of a Conservative councillor.”

So, now that Nigel has been cleared of any wrong doing, will he be getting an apology from Cllr Ross Grant or the Leicester Tories? Ross is quite willing to highlight and discuss in public issues with supposed Leicester Labour Party issues. He’s not so keen on questions being asked of his own party and his own actions.

Unfortunately, I have not seen the fact that Nigel was cleared highlighted by the Leicester Mercury despite the previous article that they ran before the election?

I also note that the Leicester Mercury is quite happy to continue to run quotes from Cllr Ross Grant on issues relating to the Labour administration in Leicester. Yes, he’s an opposition councillor but so is Nigel Porter and with the tories and libdems with one councillor each, who is the official opposition?

As a postscript, I’ve also learnt that the there has been a bit of a mass exodus from the top of the Leicester Tory Party. It remains a local conservative association in turmoil with little purpose and no real strategy and abandoned by its Central Party!

UPDATE

As if by magic an article from the Leicester Mercury appeared today entitled ‘I knew all along I had not broken any rules’ which stated that Cllr Nigel Porter had been cleared after a 7 month long investigation. It’s a complete vindication of Nigel Porter and his actions as the original documents had been passed to the Leicester Mercury.

In the article it’s nice of Cllr Grant to now try and blame the then Chief Exec, Sheila Lock, and the current Monitoring Officer, Perry Holmes. Still there is no apology for the attempt at trying to slur the personal reputation of a hard working councillor, who despite switching to the Lib Dems after being driven out by the Tories still retained his seat! Many of his former tory councillors did not, except one, Ross Grant! How happy they must be??

Given the following paragraph in the article, it does beg the question what Council Officers where doing?

The documents listed all monthly payments over £500 made by the council – something the coalition Government had ordered all councils to do. Despite the papers being marked "for publication", senior officers at the authority flagged up the issue with his Tory group leader, Councillor Ross Grant.

It’s great that the Leicester Tories retain Ross Grant as their key figurehead. Keep it up guys and I’m always happy to help the Leicester Mercury with stories about the Leicester Tories!

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