Oakham Town Council This Evening Voted to remove Cllr Adam Lowe from Committees for 6 months.
They correctly did not exempt the agenda item.
In normal Oakham Town Council style they made a bit of a mess of it and gave the public a good show.
There was a proposal to remove Cllr Lowe for one year and that fell 2 V 3
Then there was another proposal for 3 months that also fell. 2 V 3
The final vote was for six months and that was agreed. unanimous
The problem is the first vote should have been the only vote. No amendment was tabled before the vote. It would have been proper to debate the period before a proposal was put to a vote. A council cant keep voting until someone gets what they want.
At the same meeting Councillor Jean Denyer who is the Deputy Mayor once again resigned from the council verbally. She took her chain of and said she was resigning. We all know a resignation is not official until you put it in writing. I have been told this evening she has not resigned from the council and has just resigned from the role of Deputy Mayor. Jean has never want to be on the council and is easily persuaded to remain, only a little while ago she resigned and was invited back in the same week and a special meeting was held and she was co-opted back onto the council.
There is a mixed reaction on-line about Cllr Lowes conduct some calling for him to be sacked of course this can't happen.
Oakham Mayors wife posted an explanation of events on Facebook this evening in response to a negative comment posted.
Rachel Nealson 13/04/2022
he called Zoe and said "are you in? I'm 4 minutes away from your house and need to speak to you about something" she assumed it was something practical about attendance at meetings or something. He arrived at our home and while here, he made intimidating and inappropriate comments which the investigation found amounted to bullying, cllr lowe agreed he made the remarks, that wasn't disputed. It wasn't an organised meeting or working group - that is not something that Zoe has ever done - other than Dave Romney and his partner dropping a wedding gift in, no councillor has ever been in our home at any other time, nor does Zoe go to other councillors homes - After this visit she made a complaint and after her making the complaint he threatened her. The investigation took 9 months and was handled by an independent person who upheld the complaint. While you may think it is okay for people to show up at other people's homes and intimidate them, it is not generally seen that way, especially not in something like local councils where it is important to show mutual respect, even about topics on which you disagree.
