Eight Conduct Complaints, Conduct Responses Given From Cllr Martin Brookes Oakham Town Council

Eight Conduct Complaints, Conduct Responses Given From Cllr Martin Brookes
Oakham Town Council.

I have wasted a whole afternoon reading and responding to eight conduct
complaints.

I say wasted because the standards regime is currently pointless and
Oakham Town Councillor know that.

They can not lawfully impose any sanctions upon any other member so
they chose to exclude me from council working groups.

Cllr Hearn calls the exclusion democracy in action, she clearly has a
misunderstanding of democracy and how it works.

I am not not getting stressed about the conduct of Oakham Town
Council I do sometimes get annoyed, but not as much as them
In will be staying until the end of the four years and I will stand
again this club needs breaking and public money needs saving.

The cost to the taxpayer because the club OTC does not want me
on the council run into millions. Police Time, Court Costs,
Costs to RCC so far since May there has been around 15 complaints
I don't get formal notification of them all as was the case
of ex Mayors Mr Beech, who complains even if I mention
his name as a speaker at a public meeting. The monitoring
officer recently showed me pages of one of his pointless costly
complaints.




Dear Mrs Baker,

I have received notification about 

Conduct Complaints URN: 19/15, 20/15, 21/15, 22/15, 

23/15, 24/15, 25/15, 26/15

I note 20/15 and 24/15 both have their names withheld

it is my understanding this can be done in exceptional 

circumstance. I do not believe withholding a Cllrs Name

falls within this category. I can see from the text of one of

those complaints it matches the content of an email received

from Cllr Paul Mills.

In the past when I have wanted to raise conduct complaints

you have refused to accept them if I failed to give you

the full code breaches and supporting evidence.

Is this no longer a requirement? 

I suspect All these complaints were co-ordinated by Cllr

Alf Dewis Mayor who held private meetings with members

individually and in groups up to Wednesday evening this week.

When he met with "all the H's"

Some of the complaints are just opinion.

Some of the complaints are libellous.

Most of the complaints show a conspiracy to support Cllr Adam

Lowe and his current employment issue at Travis Perkins.

If Mr Lowe is found guilty and Mr Hill's allegations including 

those to plot my downfall and homophobic conduct.

Oakham Town Councillors are going  to look very foolish.  

I would go as far to say the actions 

of all the Councillors is bringing Oakham Town into disrepute.

I have asked Mr Hill if he stands by his allegations against 

Cllr Lowe he says yes.

If Mr Lowe loses his job it will not be because of any fault

by me it would his alleged wrongdoings that would be at 

fault.

On Wednesday evening Cllr Stubbs said after the meeting

to Cllr Lowe don't worry you have all our full support.

This reminded me of my court case when members gave

their full support to Cllr Charles Haworth his and other

members past and present conduct was described by the 

District Judge Mr Temperley as "homophobic crude and 

crass" very little has changed since I was found not guilty

of what this council continually accuses me of.

Below is each allegation made against me in italic my response 

follows in bold.

19/15

From Mr Stan Stubbs 

I consider that Cllr M Brookes is in breach of the code of conduct.

Firstly, he shows a total lack of integrity, harassment to Cllr Adam 

Lowe.

Disclosure of an exempt confidential agenda item. Dishonesty, 

and finally a vindictive email to Cllr Adam Lowe.

Cllr Brookes continually malicious attack of the council and its

members is bring Oakham Town Council into disrepute.

My Response:

Most of Mr Stubbs allegation is opinion and nothing more

parts are libellous and should be retracted or he should 

resign or face possible legal action. He suggest my actions

are bring Oakham Town Council into disrepute. 

Mr Stubbs and the council have done that themselves

by presenting complaints like this about another Councillor

because they highlighted the council serious accounting 

and procedure failings.

20/15  

From witheld

Mr Brookes constantly berates, and makes disparaging, rude

and vindictive comments about fellow Councillors culminating

in an email to Councillor Adam Lowe which is at least dishonest

and deceitful it not libellous- copy available.

By his attitude he is stopping the Council from moving forward

and improving as much time and effort is taken up dealing 

with his outburst and bullying during meetings.

In a fit of temper he also set of the fire alarm off in the Victoria

Hall during a meeting on Monday 29th June

Please also take time out to read his "Martin Brookes Blog" site

I thank the complainant for reminding the council about 

my blog I am sure they are still one of my many thousands

of daily visitors. This complaint is Libelous  Video recordings

of all meetings are available on youtube. Only last Wednesday

I was subjected to at least two outburst of shouting and 

finger pointing from Cllr Blanksby who resigned the next

day. Cllr Mills stood up and repeatedly called me a liar, stupid and idiot, he apologised. Constant abuse and aggression comes

from other Councillors not myself simply because I attempt to

make the council accountable for its failing like not presenting

the annual accounts to the external auditor. Most of the membership

bully and exclude me this was proved on Wednesday when all the councils working groups were dissolved and I was not permitted to serve on any and Cllr Hearn described this a democratic act.

The Fire Alarm was not activated during a meeting 

the test button was pushed when members locked themselves

in a office after Cllr Lowe use force to prevent my own entry

after an meeting was adjourned because the Mayor was refusing 

to let me speak about the council accounting failures.

I spoke to Cllr Howard a fire officer and agreed it was wrong to

do this and said I would not repeat that action.

21/15

From Adam Lowe

Wednesday 12th August. Via a Blog which clearly state Me Brookes

is a Councillor Oakham Rutland

A posting on the Blog is based on a e-mail from a person unknown 

to Mr Brookes which contains suggested stories and lies about what appears 

to myself, does not actually state my name so may not be me.

Mr Brookes has posted the email and x-referenced it to me so anyone 

reading it the Blog will draw conclusions from what has been described

as a cleverly worded e-mail and blog so as to 'suggest' that I am a corrupt

person.  Mr Brookes has also sent the e-mail which is not proven is actually

about me and if it were is actually filled with total faleshoods, to my employer.

Mr Brookes has done this under the guise of public and my employers interest.

Within the email there is no actual allegation and certainly no proof it is

an attempt to discredit by being suggestive. If Mr Brookes were acting in the

public good he should have suggested the originator of the e-mail to make

a formal complaint to my employer and the police,  I do not believe this

has been done. This breaches 1. of the Nolan Principles

Mr Brookes has posted and sent an e-mail which are faceless and his has no evidence, he even reports he does not know the person who sent the e-mail to him. This shows he has breached 2. of the Nolan report.He has shown bias against my self, a Cllr with out any conviction, evidence or proof to this or any other significant allegations made in the e-mail. Mr Brookes also sent several texts the same day after he had sent this email. One text asked me to resign, this clearly indicates that he is using this harassment and bullying tactic to get me to resign from the town council.

Another text asked if I would get sacked because of an element of this email, this clearly indicates that Mr Brookes is using harassment and bullying tactics to once again either cause me to be sacked unlawfully by posting falsehoods and sending to my employer and trying to force me to resign from the town council. These are not the actions of a person claiming act in the public interest; he has clearly decided I am guilty when as I have stated he does not know who this person is. Mr Brookes has in amongst his smoke and mirrors approach on his blog in his words lied unconditionally about me. Mr Brookes states I was given the back door exit from the police

and I resigned as a result of a harassment complaint against me, this is total lies and unless Mr Brookes has some evidence then he is breaching another

Nolan Principle, 7. He is being dishonest.

The originator of the email cannot be challenged by the police because

there is NO allegation that is what the police have told me. This adds weight to my comments that Mr Brooke's has breached the Nolan Principles; he has made assumptions based on a groundless smear campaign.

My employer having reviewed an E-mail from Mr Brookes have

drawn a similar conclusion and suggested that having read the Council standards that Mr Brookes, if he is a Councillor has breached the codes of conduct himself.

If you require a copy of the blog post or e-mail you can either view it on

Mr Brooke's blog or I can get a copy of the page posted in, along with the details of the police incident number from Leicestershire Police

Summary, Mr Brookes has received an e-mail from a person he does not know which contains nothing but lies and posted on the WWW and sent to my employer and a large selection of people with the intention to discredit, bully and harass and intimidate me to the point where I resign from the council.

Mr Lowe writes: A posting on the Blog is based on a e-mail from a person unknown 

to Mr Brookes which contains suggested stories and lies about what appears 

to myself, does not actually state my name so may not be me. So where is the 

conduct issue here?

Mr Lowe further writes: Mr Brookes has also sent the e-mail which is not proven is actually

about me and if it were is actually filled with total faleshoods, to my employer.

Mr Brookes has done this under the guise of public and my employers interest.

Within the email there is no actual allegation and certainly no proof it is

an attempt to discredit by being suggestive.

If you continue to read Mr Lowes conduct complaint against me

you can see he contradict himself he goes onto refer to no allegations as “significant allegations made in the email”

I suggest Mr Lowe carefully read the copies of Mr Hills latest emails

they do contain allegations. In the last Mr Hall confirms all his allegations

against Mr Lowe are true. It is not for me or you to prove those allegations

it a matter now for Mr Lowes employer.

Then Mr Lowe says If Mr Brookes were acting in the

public good he should have suggested the originator of the e-mail to make

a formal complaint to my employer and the police.

I am not conducting an investigation into Mr Lowes alleged conduct

I highlighting his wrong doing against me. I provided Mr Lowe with copies of the emails 

He confirmed to me Mr Hill was known to him and told me he was sacked

and denied the allegations relating to me exposing he was plotting my downfall whatever that means and his homophobic conduct against me.

I asked Mr Lowe in a text message if these allegations are true would he

resign? that is not bullying it is a simple question.

How could he remain as deputy Mayor if the allegations are true.

Past history leads me to think that the allegations made by Mr Hill

relating to be could be true if not why did he inform me of those

allegations.

Mr Lowe then says: These are not the actions of a person claiming act in the public interest; he has clearly decided I am guilty when as I have stated he does not know who this person is.

I have not accused Mr Lowe of any guilt in relation to the allegations relating to the misuse of a credit card at Travis Perkins or other employment matters I do believe he has spent time talking to fellow

Councillors about me instead of working and I also believe Mr Hills

allegation about his homophobic outbursts about me.

After my court case Mr Lowe was the Mayor of Oakham and would

not apologise for the Councillors homophobic conduct exposed in

court. He even sent messages which were critical of the district

Judge Temperley findings and would not accept I had been found

not guilty. I shared these messages publicly and with my advocate at the time.

Mr Lowe makes mention of how I am lying about Leicestershire

Police giving him the back door exit.

Leicestershire Police told me this was true when I told Mr

Lowe he said Leicestershire Police were breaching employer's

confidentiality and he was threatening them with legal action.

Mr Lowe does not want people to know when he worked at the

Oakham Branch of Travis Perkins and as a special constable

at Leicestershire Police he was using Travis Perkins computers

to harass me. I visited him and contacted his employer back then

I also contact the police. I have documents published which show

this happened. Mr Lowe will tell you and anyone else he only did

one thing wrong this is not true. I am not willing to cloud the current

situation by providing you with too much information about those

past events.

What I will add it has all been very unpleasant Mr Lowe even

persuaded DS Macdonald to serve me with a unlawful notice

banning me from commenting or taking photographs of Cllr Lowe

When he was made Mayor, The CPS made Leicestershire Police

retract the notice.

Throughout Mr Lowes Complaint he calls me a liar and dishonest these are words used by many of the complainants.

Later on I am to deal with Cllr Dewis complaint in that he reports

me for the alleged same use of words. I sense double standards here.

Towards the end of the allegations Mr Lowe says: “the emails contain

NO allegation that is what the police have told me”

Which is a true statement twice Mr Lowe says the email contains no allegtions and at least once he says the email contains significant allegations. I strongly believe Mr Lowe may be becoming forgetful or something worse perhaps. If there are NO allegations against Mr Lowe then why is he making all this fuss?

Cllr Lowe says: My employer having reviewed an E-mail from Mr Brookes have drawn a similar conclusion and suggested that having read the Council standards that Mr Brookes, if he is a Councillor has breached the codes of conduct himself.

Since when passing on allegations to a retailer allegations of breaches

of company policies and other activity from a past employer is a breach

of council standards. I would say it may be a possible breach that I have not passed the information onto the police.

Mr Lowe says:

If you require a copy of the blog post or e-mail you can either view it on

Mr Brooke's blog or I can get a copy of the page posted in, along with the details of the police incident number from Leicestershire Police

Incident number? That is all it is, it means nothing and Mr Lowe

knows that as shown in h

is previous comment about the email sender. Just like me the police

are fed up with Oakham Town Council. I am fed up with the constant harassment and exclusion and being blamed for the council not doing anything since the May election. There is one of me and 11 of them and they chose to be confrontational most of the time.

In his summary Mr Lowe once agains says I am bullying by publishing the email sent from Mr Hill there is fact more than one the most recent seen by Mr Lowe contains some very serious allegations which bearing

in mind his senior position in our community should not be ignored.

All this activity conducted against me is an attempt to conceal the many failing this council is attempting to hide.

Accounts, Risk Assessment and more.

22/15

From Michael Haley

The Agenda for the Town Council meeting of 22^nd July 2015 included

a confidential item and the public and press were excluded from the

meeting for the duration of this item. All councillors, Including Martin Brookes were made aware that this was confidential, meeting papers marked as such Mr Brookes decided to ignore Oakham Town Council's code of conduct (4.1.5) and publish the paper in its entirety on his website

Papers for the OTC meeting of the 19^th August 2015

Papers for the OTC meeting of the 19^th August 2015 have been circulated to all OTC Councillors

Nice man this newly co-opted councillor. Enjoys a chat with me and Cllr Gale about most council issues he stood as part of an Independent RCC group in May did not get elected.

The first paper he mentions I assume is the one presented by Cllr Lucas

This has been raised before and I refer you to my previos response.

Papers for the OTC meeting of the 19^th August 2015 including the report from Street Accounts were as the Cllr says distributed to all Councillors. These were also distributed to Members of the public and RCC Oakham Ward Councillors by OTC. Oakham Town Council have

also published the document in full in the public domain.

I reproduced screen shots of this public document.

By publishing a non confidential document against the wishes of the accounts is not a conduct matter.

Oakham Town Council did have consent to publish the document online in the public domain. You would be slightly pushed to find it.

My reproducing what is quite a poor report about the councils accounts

and Clerk is in the public interest.

http://oakham.leicestershireparishcouncils.org/uploads/1755cdf91991a91864132647.pdf

On the next complaint I comment in bold after each paragraph

23/15

From Mrs Councillor Enid Joyce Lucas

I wish to complain about the behaviour of Cllr Maritn Brookes whose attitude has been a cause of concern to me over many years whilst he has a member of Oakham Town Council

I have not been a Councillor for very long so this paragh makes no sense to me.

However since his return to being a member in May 2015 he has been

more aggressive and disruptive to most members and this gives me the gravest concern.

How dramatic, all the video evidence I have and published shows I have never behaved as described above. It is a fact Mrs Lucas

has become a concern to me so much so I sent you a recording of

her telling me she has a right to be rude and disrespectful to me at

any time she wishes. Sometime I may get provoked and raise

my voice but never use violence at the last meeting Cllr Lucas

actually hit me.

She continues her complaint with this is just some of the problems I have personally encountered.

June 29^th I gave a paper on creating more Alderman for Rutland, Two

candidates were not aware that this was about to happen. It was printed on Red paper indicating that it was confidential. The report was confidential The report had CONFIDENTIAL written across the entire length of the A4 sheet.

I have already responded to this complaint and refer you to my

response.

But as a summary Oakham Town Council has no authority to involve its self in this type of project and a considerable amount of our time was wasted by Councillor Lucas putting it simply she had a strop

because this was pointed out to her.

Before I started to explain the idea of submitting a report to Rutland County Council, the press and public were excluded and I reiterated my request for confidentiality. All members except Cllr Brookes handed their papers back to the clerk for disposal. Cllr Brookes kept his copy and the next day he blogged the the full page with comments. This is a serious breach of the code of conduct.

Later in the day I had to explain the situation to the candidates

Perhaps Mrs Lucas will help them obtain a BEM just like her

undeserved BEM we all had to endure over ten minutes of

waffle from her about how those who applied for hers worked so hard to get her BEM I am sure they did and no doubt a lot more work than Cllr Lucas ever carried out to get her BEM.

2^nd August I was hosting the Forester Brass Band in Cutts Close Park, This entailed welcoming welcoming the band and thanking everyone for attending at the end of the concert.

Cllr Brookes came to where my husband and I were sitting and tried to engage me in conversation . I repeatedly told him to leave us alone.

This is not true I approached Cllr Lucas and I believe Cllr Lowe

as I was also attending the same event in my capacity as a town councillor Mrs Lucas immediately object to my presence and as you

may have heard on a recording I provided she told me she was entitled to be rude to me when ever she pleased the recording is available on youtube.

Cllr Lucas then says she left the area and Cllr Brookes returned to speak to my husband and told him that he had secretly recorded the conversation, without my consent, and would be adding it to his blog. This he did the very next day, I consider this a breach of my right to privacy.

Yes I did speak to Mr Bob Lucas sitting smugly wearing his masonic symbol. I spoke to him so he could remind Joyce that I do record encounters at times with my fellow councillors. He grunted a inaudible response and I walked away. It is not secret I record encounters with councillors it is my safeguard so often in the past I would say Mrs Lucas or another said something and was called a liar.

There is no privacy issue here the recording was made in a public space

and the Cllr like myself was on duty. Only this week the police told me they are finding the use of bodycams by the public very helpful. Maybe

that is why our deputy Mayor Cllr Lowe has started wearing a large one.

12^th August Cllr blogged a very unpleasant e mail from Mr Andy Hill

which gave an account about a fellow Councillor. In it there were serious accusations about his employment with a local firm of building suppliers,

Cllr Brookes admitted in the letter that he was writing as a Councillor.

Most of the comments are unsubstantiated, And I find this the most serious

offence to date.

I think Cllr Lucas is referring to the email I received relating to

our deputy Mayor Cllr Adam Lowe about his alleged criminal activities and conduct at Travis Perkins where he works. This is not a conduct issue.

It is no surprise to me Cllr Lucas supports a homophobe she offered the same support to Cllr Charles Haworth and Co.

Then I am constantly reminded of the time she called me into a meeting in Cllr Dewis's presence and said I should not blog photos of transgender people when they were actually drag queens.

She also accused me of bring the council in to disrepute when I

published photographs of myself enjoying my birthday in a gay friendly bar. She said Cllrs should not drink in gay bars.

Cllr Lucas BEM is a spreader of malicious gossip.

On more than one occasion she has tried to upset or offend me by

suggesting I have a small penis, daft woman, my response to that each time has Bob Lucas been telling you secrets.

Cllr Lucas has been offered medication and has aggressively told me

“her doctor has diagnosed I am the cause of of her mental condition”

Cllr Brookes is in breach of the code of conduct on more occasions but

I would like to just include these three items.

No further comment

24/15

From another withheld

The first chunk of this complaints repeats other complaints regarding

the confidential matters which I have previously responded to.

The unknown person then says:

In addition, I believe Cllr Brookes also breaches the code of conduct, and goes against the 7 principles of public life, when he secretly records people without their knowledge, and subsequently blogs, usually only part of, a conversation, thus abusing their right to privacy.

This can be observed when he secretly recorded, in part, a conversation with Cllr Joyce Lucas, and blogged it on August 02 2015

Cllr Brookes also secretly recorded Cllr Alf Dewis when he turned up to

a committee meeting, and as such was present as a member of the public, and not only did he turn up early and walk straight in, it is evident on his blog that he was actually recording on his phone as he walked into the office. Prior to any conversation taking place! This clip is shown on his blog on August 10 2015

This cleary shows the complainant was not present and has been asked to make this complaint Because I did not enter the office I entered the public council chamber. 15 minutes before the meeting at RCC the public are given 20 minutes prior access so I don't believe I have done anything wrong if the person actually watch the video they will see

I walked into the chamber said good afternoon and was immediately told to get out.

It is no secret I record I am aware of least two County Councillor who also record it is very commons these days.

This person I assume was present at both these events I would suggest they were not.

I have published only 4 or 5 recordings in about the same number of years, the first was Chris Hamilton when he was pissed and approached and verbally abused me, I only publish part to prove

as often the language can at time be to offensive for public ears.

The second time was David Dilks a relation to of a former Mayor

The first part of that recording was never published it was far to offensive and only played to Leicestershire Police who lied to me and told me this man was not known to anyone connected to Oakham Town Council it turned out he was Paul Beeches stepson I believe Mr Beech had the audacity to submit a conduct complaint after the event.

As for there comments about secretly recording Cllr Dewis before

and committee which showed his lack of manners can I ask you point out the law to this person anyone can now record at meeting before, during or after a meeting the law is very clear about that right.

The complainant refers to me recording Mr Waddington

during a visit to his home after he made false allegations about

me to the council.

They also go on and on about privacy invasion, and how a councillor visiting Mr Waddingtons home brings the council into disrepute they also claim the recordings are heavily edited.

Mr Waddingtons Recording is unedited and despite his continual aggression and abusive words I kept my cool until the police arrived. As can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgbQi5Jsf1Y

I believe it is unacceptable that any person or councillor should have to put up with the contiunual abuse and harassment I have to endure

from people connected to Oakham Town Council.

I am also very annoyed by the time I have to spend answering this

constant allegations which I consider form part of the harassment

so far up to this point I have spent over three hours on a Saturday reading considering and replying to all these allegations.

26/15

From Mrs Rebacca Hearn

Newly co-opted Councillor described as a one trip pony by

Cllr Joyce Lucas just out to get council property for free.

Cllr Brookes has made some inflammatory statements on his blog; however I am making a complaint against Mr Brookes for breaking confidentiality of the town council July 23^rd, Mr Brookes blogged a confidential paper. All other councillors gave it back to the Clerk to be destroyed.

I do not return any confidential agenda items because I attempt to my job as a parish councillor to my best and I keep all council papers for

future reference I can not remember everything. I am sure RCC Councillors keep their yellow document safely filed away for future reference.

July 26-a photo of Barleythorpe Hall is on his blog. One can only assume that he was on the property illegally.

I have checked my record and find the photograph was taken on March 20, 2012 at that time the property was not fenced of as can be seen in the photo it was then publicly owned I am fed up with constantly being falsely accused of illegal activity by members of Oakham Town Council, the recent conduct reminds of event of 2010 the first time I became a town Councillor I was accused of Railway trespass when I took a photograph of tambourine bridge. These Councillors really do have a unhealthy grudge against me and it must stop the exclusion from working groups is a repeat of 2010. and just look at Cllr Hearns typical lack of basic manners she constantly refers to me as him or he.

August 17, he blogged the report the accountants who had written specifically that the report not be copied onto any form of electronic device.

I refer you back to a previous complainant about the same matter

I simply screen shot from Oakham Town Councils website a publicly

funded public document.

Cllr Hearn finishes her complaint with the following statement

Councillor Brookes, cannot be trusted with ANY information, he will use it to

forward his agenda, discredit others who disagree with him, use the truth out of context reducing it to lies. He is vindictive, and untrustworthy.

Not a bad statement from a newly co-opted Councillor who has attended two or three meetings since. A very libellous statement perhaps the time has come

for me to stop threatening legal action and start proceedings against members like Cllr Hearn. I suggest she retract this statement and resigns from the council

this and her comments that exclusion of a member from taking part in council activities is democracy in action only proves Cllr Hearn is not fit to be a councillor.

The final complaint from the mayor refers to Mr Hills email and to sum up he says I am a bully and call him dishonest and generally attack Cllr Lowe.

I sent one email about this matter to Councillors and others including Cllr Lowes

employer. Cllr Dewis suggest Mr Lowe could be sacked as a result of this.

Fortunately Mr Lowe does not work for Mr Dewis and I am sure Travis Perkins

would only sack Mr Lowe if Mr Hills allegations of Criminality Homophobia and racism and bullying are proved. Mr Dewis has a habit of finding people guilty and then investigating or not depending on how he feels at the time.