Councillors and officers..and all of us… are busy people. But there are signs that the Standards’ sub-committee were having their own time wasted, as well as Cllr Graham Salter’s valuable worktime (he’s self-employed) at this week’s hearing called by EDDC’s Monitoring Officer. It went on and on…..and after only a majority vote (2 to 1) , he was found to have breached the councillors’ code of conduct on one count. But it was clearly not a serious issue, as it was then decided no sanctions were warranted.

Consultants (paid)  council officers (paid), Cllr Salter (unpaid )  and members of the public (unpaid) were obliged to wait for hours, while the sub-committee deliberated.

Had this been a serious case, the expense and length of the hearing could be seen to be justified….  and not perceived as part of a District-wide pattern of apparent attempts to gag dissenters.

Our earlier report on the same hearing is here: https://eastdevonwatch.org/2014/05/15/why-did-you-become-a-councillor/