A personal comment considered “below the belt” made in a council meeting will be discussed this week

A complaint made about the remark passed in a full Worcestershire County Council meeting this year will be considered on Thursday at the authority’s standards and ethics committee.

The councils’ monitoring officer consulted the chairman and an independent member of the committee and agreed the personal jibe made by the councillor in the meeting fell short of treating others with respect and thus broke the code of conduct for councillors.

The officer wrote to the councillor who was reminded to comply with the code in political debate and to treat others with respect. However no further action of the complaint was taken.

The report to the committee does not mention the nature of the remark or which councillor made it about whom.

However, in a full council meeting in February the council's Labour Group leader Peter McDonald made a reference to Councillor Adrian Hardman's conviction for drink driving in 2016 that forced his resignation as leader of the council. Some councillors at the time felt that remark overstepped the mark of political debate.

Another complaint concerned a social media comment by a third party that was reposted by a councillor on Facebook.

It was decided the councillor had done nothing wrong because nothing in the repost breached the code of conduct and the councillor had the freedom of speech to repost the comment.

But because the council repost allowed others to post “vulgar abuse” the councillor has been reminded of the dangers of reposting on social media.

The meeting of the ethics and standards committee begins at 10am Wednesday, April 25 at County Hall, Worcester.