'I was not sleeping': Councillor hits back over video posted from meeting
A councillor has hit back after being accused of sleeping in a council meeting - insisting he closes his eyes as a technique to concentrate.
Powys county councillor Pete Roberts has been subject to scrutiny after a Skype video of him in an informal council meeting was published online by Conservative councillor Mark Barnes.
It comes months after he was forced out of the role as chair of scrutiny for poor attendance, only to be re-instated when it was found rules had been broken.
Now a new video has surfaced, and after a number of online comments, the councillor who suffers from aspergers, wants to set the record straight.
He said: “I don’t want to use aspergers as an excuse in this, and I am not going to.
“A few years ago I found a way of concentrating, and that was by closing my eyes.
“It managed to help me shut out all other distractions and concentrate on what had been said.
‘Bullying’
“This is what I was doing in this video, and not sleeping as it has been claimed.”
He believes someone has taken personal offence to him, and said the video could be seen as “cyber bullying”.
The video has now been taken down.
Mr Roberts and group leader James Gibson-Watt are considering all options including making a complaint to the public services ombudsman for Wales.
He believes it should involve whoever passed on the video to Mr Barnes.
He added: “This has had an impact on me and could be cyber bullying.
“We are considering what to do with it, and it could be a complaint to the ombudsman or information commissioner.
“It could also be a breach of the council’s social media policy, which has just been put into force.”
