A TOWN and county borough councillor from Bridgend has had a six-month suspension upheld despite a recommendation given by the Adjudication Panel for Wales.
Independent councillor Steven Bletsoe of Bridgend Town Council was suspended for six months in May 2024 after he failed to declare a personal and prejudicial interest in a matter concerning his wife and fellow councillor Freya Bletsoe.
The suspension was handed down from Bridgend County Borough Council’s standards committee after a dispute over the accuracy of minutes which recorded a disagreement between the clerk of the town council and Cllr Freya Bletsoe at a meeting which discussed the unveiling of blue plaques in the town.
The committee said Cllr Bletsoe had breached a number of clauses in the code of conduct which included bringing the authority into disrepute and failing to declare a personal or prejudicial interest.
The suspension was not implemented at the time as Cllr Bletsoe had appealed the decision through the Adjudication Panel for Wales and they held a tribunal in December.
The report given by the panel said while he had accepted there had been a code breach which he did not wish to challenge he did not accept the level of sanction which he felt to be “too harsh”.
Following the hearing, which saw representations made by both Cllr Bletsoe and the Public Service Ombudsman for Wales, the panel decided that a suspension of six months was “excessive” as this was the maximum sanction which could be imposed, referring the matter back to Bridgend Council’s standards committee with a recommendation to reduce it to 10 weeks.
However at a subsequent meeting members of the standards committee decided not to reduce the suspension as recommended and instead chose to uphold their original decision as they felt no new or significant information had come to light.
Speaking at the meeting the committee acknowledged the discussions held by the Adjudication Panel for Wales though said they felt that the panel had seen and heard a “very different set of statements with some elements of remorse which were not evident at all in the initial case”.
The committee added that they would be upholding the original six months suspension, taking effect from February 7, 2025, with the report noting that there is no further right of appeal except “by way of judicial review to the High Court”.
