Telford council racism investigation cost taxpayers £4,000

An investigation into a Shropshire councillor accused of being racist has cost the taxpayer more than £4,000, it was revealed today.

The inquiry into Councillor Pat Smart, chairman of Hadley and Leegomery Parish Council in Telford, has seen more than £3,000 paid to a lawyer who was drafted in from London, with the rest being spent on the authority's own in-house lawyer's time.

Telford & Wrekin Council today defended the move and said the authority had to apply the national Code of Conduct for elected members.

Councillor Smart was accused of making racist remarks to a parishioner last March and was investigated by police and the Standards Committee at Telford & Wrekin Council. She was later cleared of all allegations.

But today Councillor Smart, who obtained the figures under a Freedom of Information request, hit out at the borough council for spending £4,176 on the investigation and claimed it was a waste of public money.

Councillor Smart claimed the costs were unnecessary after the police found there was no case to answer and said an in-house solicitor at Telford & Wrekin Council could have carried out the work alone, rather than spending £3,313 on a London based lawyer.

Councillor Smart claimed the costs were unnecessary after the police found there was no case to answer and said an in-house solicitor at Telford & Wrekin Council could have carried out the work alone, rather than spending £3,313 on a London based lawyer.

Councillor Smart said: "To have breached the code of conduct I would have had to have said what I was being accused of and the police said there was no case to answer for, yet the council still decided to spend all this money.

"I don't know why the legal department at the council could not have dealt with this, rather than employing someone to come from London to interview me and charge us taxpayers £3,000 for it.

"It is a total waste of public money."

But Russell Griffin, a spokesman for Telford & Wrekin Council, said: "If we receive a complaint about a councillor, the issue will be referred to the council's Standards Committee after initial assessment. The Standards Committee then decide whether there is a case to answer and in this case decided that there was.

"A Standards investigation has a completely different focus to any police investigation and therefore the outcome of a police investigation is not relevant to whether a Standards matter is investigated.

"After the Standards Committee takes its decision, we have set processes that we legally have to go through, including appointing an external investigator to ensure that any investigation is fair and transparent."

By Jason Lavan