Smack on bottom by lady provost was friendly, standards body rules

Published on Tuesday 18 March 2008 22:03

A LADY provost who smacked the bottom of another councillor and called her a naughty girl has escaped punishment, it emerged yesterday.

Ruth Leslie Melville, the independent provost of Angus, was investigated by the Scottish Standards Commission after Glennis Middleton, an SNP councillor, claimed the civic head had slapped her backside twice when she arrived late for a council meeting.

Mrs Middleton alleged that the provost's actions were offensive and in breach of the councillor code of conduct.

And yesterday she emphatically declared: "Nobody is that friendly with me other than my husband."

However, Stuart Allan, the Commission's chief investigating officer, cleared Provost Leslie Melville and appealed to both women to get along with each other for the sake of the local authority.

He stated in his judgment that the incident amounted to a "gee-up" gesture by the provost which was a "friendly act and made in that spirit".

And Mr Allan continued: "I did not consider that there was any action by Councillor Leslie Melville which would justify a finding that the councillors' code of conduct had been breached by her. I hope this episode will not affect the future relationships between the councillors concerned.

"It would be sad, indeed, and of no benefit whatever to the citizens of Angus if their elected representatives did not try to get along with each other in the conduct of council business."

Provost Melville was on a council trade mission to China yesterday and could not be contacted for comment on the judgment.

But Mrs Middleton, a former provost, condemned the commission's decision and declared: "I don't know what was in her mind. The fact is she slapped me on the backside and called me a naughty girl and it's inappropriate to do that.

"How the Standards Commission can say it's all right as long as it's friendly I don't know. She's not my friend. She is my colleague and there is a huge difference."

She added: "I cannot believe in this day and age that anyone would do such a thing, whether it was a joke or not.

"I am very disappointed at the conclusion that the Standards Commission has come to and it seems to me now that councillors have less protection than anyone else in the country.

"What they are saying is that it is all right to do that sort of thing as long as you do it as a joke or a laugh and I am meant to accept it. I felt it was offensive and demeaning and just completely inappropriate."

Asked if there had been ill feeling between the two of them, she replied: "I have never been at war with anyone of whatever political party within the council.

"I save my arguments for the debating chamber, which is the right and proper place to have them. I have not fallen out with anyone.

"They (the Commission] seem to have accepted that there was something political in all of this and that is not the case. It wouldn't have mattered who did it. They shouldn't have done it."

According to the Commission's report, Mrs Middleton claimed she had been slapped twice and called a "naughty girl" by the Provost as they were about to enter the council chamber when she arrived late for a meeting of the authority.

Provost Melville told the Commission she had no recollection of the alleged incident and insisted that if there was any contact it was inadvertent.

A spokeswoman for Angus Council said: "We regard this as an issue between two individual elected members and will not be commenting."

Mrs Middleton's complaint is one of two made against the provost by opposition councillors on the authority in recent months.

The second complaint remains under investigation.

CENTRAL CHARACTERS

RUTH Leslie Melville is a former chairman of Tayside Health Council who was elected to Angus Council as a Brechin councillor in 1999. She became provost after the council elections last May last year when Independent, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors united to form the Angus Alliance, ending decades of Scottish National Party domination of the authority.

Glennis Middleton, the SNP councillor for Forfar and District, was appointed as civic head when Angus was ruled by her party.