Third official complaint made to council over would-be Milton Keynes deputy mayor

The standards assessment sub-committee heard yesterday (Thursday) that there has now been a third complaint against Labour councillor Moriah Priestley and they agreed to consider it alongside two others.

Councillors agreed to meet for a second time after it emerged that Cllr Priestley (Central MK) and the independent member Dr Vasco Fernandes knew each other.

One of the complainants, a senior member of the local NHS, had been watching the YouTube broadcast and recognised Dr Fernandes, a retired consultant in Milton Keynes.

The committee agreed to consider complaints again with three new councillors on the panel, and a new independent person, to counter a perception of bias.

The nature of the three complaints were not revealed after the committee decided to exclude the press and public.

But the council later made public the decisions made by the committee.

They rejected one complaint, will “party investigate” one allegation, and seek an informal resolution of another.

A third complaint has been partly referred for investigation and partly rejected.

The full reasons for the decision are due to be published by next Thursday (July 30).

At a previous meeting on July 7, another committee had decided to hold the matter behind closed doors after being advised that they did not have time to take personal details out of the background papers.

Yesterday the matter hinged on whether certain financial details would have to be a part of the debate.

The committee’s legal adviser, Kat Hulatt, told the councillors that she could not see how they could avoid referring to them.

Cllr Norman Miles (Lab, Wolverton), who was chairing the committee said it was a balancing act.

He said he was balancing the concerns of “the first complainant about personal violence” and whether whistleblowers would be put off if their details were made public.

“Because of the complexity of the financial affairs and the fact that this is an early stage hearing and not the main hearing I would think it is fairer all round that we do hold this meeting in private,” he said.

Cllr Dan Gilbert (Cons, Loughton & Shenley) wanted to hold the meeting in public.

“The process and the issues that we are going to be talking about also affect public confidence in this authority and I think more significantly the potential future mayor of Milton Keynes.

“I am also mindful at the same time that we need to protect whistleblowers. It must be that members of the public can confidentially raise issues of concern. On balance my view is that we should err on the side of transparency and accountability.”

Cllr Vanessa McPake (Lib Dem, Monkston) decided that the YouTube channel should be switched off “in the light of financial information and we are not making a final decision.”

The committee excluded the press and public from their deliberations.

Its decision means complaints against Cllr Priestley will now be investigated in more depth.