The Kensington & Chelsea Chronicle reports:
Two Tory councillors have resigned after it emerged inappropriate emails had been sent using the council’s email system.
Former Kensington and Chelsea mayor Councillor Barry Phelps fired off a series of emails to Councillor Mark Daley, displaying black and white images of young boys with sexually suggestive captions added by Mr Phelps…
The emails were reported to the council by Justin Downes, leader of the Residents First campaign group, who had been alerted by a concerned resident.
“These were innocent images and Councillor Phelps has created sexual overtones to them,” Mr Downes said…
A police spokeswoman said they were not investigating the emails.
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5 Comments
Over at Conservative Home
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/localgovernment/2010/07/two-councillors-in-kensington-and-chelsea-tender-their-resignations.html#comments
they have censored comments on this story…….
BECAUSE OF THE SENSTIVITY OF THE RESIGNATIONS WE ARE NOT OPENING THE THREAD TO COMMENTS.
ho and hum….
The one specific example of one of these pictures I have heard of seems more like satire (albeit in very bad taste) than anything more sinister – other examples may of course be less explicable – but for god’s sake what possessed them to think forwarding that sort of thing on a council email was a good idea I will never know!
Just a gentle reminder for everyone about the site’s commenting policy, including the reference to off-topic comments, especially when there’s a current relevant thread: https://www.libdemvoice.org/the-liberal-democrat-voice-team
My own dealings with Councillor Barry Phelps led me to regard him as one of the few decent Tories. I’m sorry this has happened.
Senseco and Mark, am not a reguler ‘poster’ on this site but feel I’ll have to stretch the “comments policy” on this one as if one is looking for examples of “abusive comments” there is a particular disgraced ex-tory councillor who specialises in that art form. As a libdem activist who was formerly resident in Kensington, I can only say it is pity that it has taken so long for Barry Phelps behaviour to be exposed. His sexuality was always public and no one has a problem with that, but local residents were often bemused at the way he would boast about his conquests and interests in young boys. In somewhere as ‘true blue’ as KandC, where council colleagues tend to close ranks and protect each other, Barry Phelps’ many character flaw issues where never exposed (this is only the tip of the iceberg) – though Barry himself would stoop to the very worst tactics of smearing his ultra-decent lib dem oponents at Council elections and undermining their reputations in non-political spheres. Whilst a coloufull and sometimes entertaining character many people including myself (and not just lib dems) have found him to be the most pompous, nasty, unpleasant and self-important characters in local government life one could meet, his only redeaming feature being that he worked reasonably hard as a ward councillor and community politician. He was however well known for being a complete bully and had a bad reputation for this despite managing to get re-elected almost continuously in Earls Court. Indeed the standards board have upheld complaints (from active residents) about his bullying behaviour in the past (most recent was just last february) – though his colleagues once again closed ranks to protect him (fellow tory councilllors tended to treat him as a bit of a naughty or eccentric loveable schoolboy rather than a liability…and he was never so kind to them, dismissing Michael Portillo for example at “that spaniard”). Barry’s preferred way of dealing with anyone who took a different view on any issue to him was simply to hurl abuse and expletives at them. He has got away with appalling behaviour and abuses for years. THANKFULLY HE HAS GONE. And I do think there is a time and place on the blogshere at least to raise issues about whether someone is a fit character to hold public office, quite regardless of their political party afilliation or political skill in surviving. Some more about the story here
http://barryphelps.posterous.com/