‘Bloody Rabble’ Remark – Investigation Recommends Councillor Apologises

Published on: 22 Aug, 2016
Updated on: 24 Aug, 2016

Cllr Moseley, chairing the April 6th planning meeting.

An independent report on complaints made against Cllr Marsha Moseley (Con, Ash Vale) of Guildford Borough Council (GBC) has recommended that she should apologise for commenting: “It’s like dealing with a bloody rabble isn’t it?”, immediately after a planning meeting she was chairing in April (2016).

But the councillor has, so far, refused to do so and the complaints might have to proceed to a formal hearing.

Three complaints were received following a council meeting in which a controversial planning application, for a large development on the former Wisley airfield by Ockham, was refused. Cllr Moseley’s remark, made to a council officer before her microphone had been switched off, and audible on the initial webcast of the meeting, was referring to the behaviour of those in the public gallery.

When it was realised that the webcast included the comment, Sue Sturgeon, managing director at GBC, ordered it to be removed but it had already been re-recorded and posted on YouTube.

Note: The caption at the top of the YouTube clip is not a quote. Cllr Moseley actually said: “It’s like dealing with a bloody rabble isn’t it?”

Three complaints about the remark were received from Garry Walton, Helen Jefferies and Michael Bruton, members of the public who had attended the meeting. All three are understood to be current or former members of the Guildford Greenbelt Group (GGG) and/or Wisley Action Group (WAG).

Initially an assessment of the complaints was “carried out externally” because the monitoring officer, Satish Mistry, was on leave. The external assessment was that:  “…in making her comment, Councillor Moseley may have breached the Council’s Code of Conduct.”

Mr Mistry accepted the assessment and concluded that if Cllr Moseley apologised he would regard that: “as a local resolution of the complaints”. But Cllr Moseley refused to apologise and an investigation was deemed necessary under the council’s recently revised complaint’s against councillors procedure, reviewed following dissatisfaction with the way the complaint against former councillor Monika Juneja was handled.

A 56-page document, marked “CONFIDENTIAL”, written by an independent consultant, Tim Darsley of Tim Darsley Associates in Trowbridge, Wilts, reports his investigation into the complaints. Mr Darsley interviewed Cllr Moseley, the three complainants and three council officers. The report is believed to have cost GBC more than £1,000.

Within the report considerable attention is paid to the conduct of the meeting. In her initial response to the complaints, Cllr Moseley states that it was the bad behaviour displayed by some within the public gallery that led to her making the contentious comment.

She wrote: “With that [the announcement of the decision to refuse] the Council Chamber broke out into total chaos as the public gallery were cheering, clapping and some getting up to leave the chamber… I had to shout loudly to bring order back to the meeting… From my point of view it was very distressing and exasperating… I have never experienced anything like this before and I can honestly say it was the worst meeting I have ever had to chair!”

Carolyn Forster the senior planning solicitor at GBC, one of the three council officers interviewed during the investigation, was supportive of Cllr Moseley. Regarding the “rabble” remark she said: “It had been fair comment – they were an unruly crowd.”

Tim Dawes, the planning development manager at GBC, who was sitting next to Cllr Moseley at the meeting and to whom she made her “…like a bloody rabble” comment, is recorded by the investigator as saying: “The behaviour of the public wasn’t terrible but the atmosphere was charged in anticipation of the application being refused.”

But the investigator Mr Darsley concludes “…by making her comment, Councillor Moseley reduced public confidence in her own role and adversely affected the reputation of the Council. I find therefore that Councillor Moseley has brought her office and the Council into disrepute.”

He recommends that an apology from Cllr Moseley is deemed appropriate and writes: “…in his initial assessment, the Monitoring Officer concluded that if Councillor Moseley were to make a public apology for her comment, this would constitute a reasonable resolution to the complaints. Having completed my investigation, I share this view.”

Tim Darsley suggests that Cllr Moseley apologises at the next available meeting of the borough council but adds: “If such a local resolution cannot be achieved, the Report of Investigation would be forwarded for a local hearing as provided for in the Council’s Arrangements.”

In her response to a draft copy of the investigation report Cllr Moseley commented: “I did not consider the complaints to be justified, it was a private comment and the complaints were purely vexatious…. If you [Mr Darsley] want to really understand that the complaints are vexatious, please look at GGG’s website under latest news and you will see the personal attacks against me. This must be admitted as evidence.”

One of the complainants, Helen Jefferies, commented within the report: “In summary – having read Cllr Moseley’s statement I now feel even more strongly that her behaviour needs a proper censure. She appears to have learned nothing and continues to bring the council into disrepute with behaviour not in keeping with her office as a Councillor or as a Chairman of the Planning Committee.”

East Devon District Council used Tim Darsley 14 times 2011-2013 to investigate 14 complaints, according to a published response to a “Freedom of Information” request. The cost of one such investigation was given as £1,405.86.

Share This Post