Cittaslow Ludlow was the centre of another row at Ludlow Town Council, after Councillor Amanda Pope accused a colleague of harassing the council’s former representative on the board.
Councillor Graeme Perks revealed he had resigned as the council’s official representative on the board of directors, saying he believed there was a potential conflict of interest between that position and being a town councillor. Councillor Perks then helped vote in Deputy Mayor Councillor Derek Davies as the council’s new representative.
Councillor Jeffry Wilcox said: “Why, if he doesn’t think a representative from this council should be appointed director, should he vote for someone to be in that position – someone who has been absolutely public in his distaste for Cittaslow Ludlow and all that it stands for?”
Councillor Perks failed to answer the question, so Councillor Wilcox asked it again, at which point Councillor Pope said: “This is out of order, it’s harassment.”
Clerk Linda Thomas said it was not a breach of standing orders to ask a question, but Councillor Perks was not obliged to answer.
Councillor Perks said he had stepped down because, aside from conflicts of interest, there needed to be clarification by Cittaslow International of what was expected from local government organisations in the UK.
Councillor Graeme Kidd, president of Cittaslow UK, said there were many examples of councillors at town and district level involved as directors in organisations including South Shropshire Housing Association, Enterprise South West Shropshire and South Shropshire Furniture Scheme.
He added he had taken advice from monitoring officer Veronica Calderbank and spoken to organisations with councillors for directors and it was not generally considered a problem, providing the councillor did not have a controlling interest in the company.
Councillor Kidd said Cittaslow UK would provide the council with details of how it expected local government organisations to operate when putting Cittaslow principles into practice in their own localities.
