East Devon District Council has refused to explain why it removed online comments made by its leader, Councillor Paul Arnott, during a planning meeting about a large development proposed for Exmouth. The council says its complaints process is confidential.
The authority recently redacted a recorded comment by Cllr Arnott from footage of its July strategic planning meeting. The council will not say what the investigation is about, why the comment was censored, or what the outcome has been.
A spokesperson for East Devon District Council said Cllr Arnott was "talking about Exmo_20" in the redacted footage. "The footage was redacted by the monitoring officer, who is a qualified solicitor," the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson said it could not state whether any complaint about the comments had come from someone outside the council, because its complaints process is confidential. "We have an active complaint," the spokesperson said. "We cannot disclose what it is about as our complaints process is confidential. We cannot disclose the outcome of complaints as the process is confidential, however, it will have no bearing on the redacted footage."
Cllr Arnott did not wish to comment.
The council confirmed the redaction was carried out by its monitoring officer, Melanie Wellman. A document that anonymises recent complaints to the council shows one from an MP, which went to Stage 2 but is now listed as 'no further action', with the monitoring officer "liaising with the parties to explore informal resolution prior to issuing the final decision". A second complaint by an MP is also listed for the same reasons, 'making false allegations', but this was filed on 10 September and it is not known whether it will progress further.
The recording of the meeting, available on the council's YouTube channel, features a statement from Cllr Arnott (Liberal Democrat, Coly Valley). He appears to be making a point about the controversial Exmo_20 site, a proposed allocation in East Devon's draft local plan. Cllr Arnott states he can "help you protesters", referring to some of the members of the public who attended the meeting to reiterate their feelings about the possible plot that could contain around 700 homes, and then the footage is replaced with a written message.
That message states: "A short section has been omitted following a decision under the council's redaction procedures. The formal minutes remain available."
East Devon Council Keeps Complaint Probe Confidential