and this comment from Damien Mills on Councillor Wright’s web blog adds an interesting new perspective to this fracas:
“If I was Claire, I would be consulting a solicitor.
Dare I suggest Cllr Twiss might be well advised to forget about the Malicious Communications Act 1988 – which, plainly, he grasps about as well as he does the English language – and to concern himself instead with garnering a better understanding of the Defamation Act 2013.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/26/contents/enacted
Cllr Twiss has sent an email to his 58 fellow East Devon councillors in which he accuses Claire of ‘knowingly publishing a threatening and highly offensive comment’.
That’s a very serious allegation which, clearly, could do serious damage to Claire’s reputation – all the more so when you consider Cllr Twiss didn’t just voice his concerns in private to the Monitoring Officer but chose instead to share them with more than 50 others.
As far as I can see, Cllr Twiss’s only possible line of defence is that ‘the words complained of are true in substance and fact’ – that’s to say, he can demonstrate beyond all reasonable doubt that Claire deliberately set out to intimidate / threaten the Tory contingent on East Devon District Council. Frankly, I reckon there’s more chance of a new Local Plan being in place by the turn of the year!
Cllr Twiss might, I think, do well to issue a public apology before this goes any further; failing that I fear he might need to get in touch with his fellow correspondent on these pages, John Richards, and seek out the contact details of his learned friend at Lincoln’s Inn! wink
And finally… I would be disappointed if the Monitoring Officer at East Devon has not already communicated their concerns with Cllr Twiss’s defamatory comments to each of the 58 other recipients and instigated an investigation as, it seems clear to me, there can be little doubt such comments represent a clear breach of the council’s code of conduct.”
East Devon Watch 
I wonder how many EDDC jobs will be culled when the Council (a) shares services with Exeter and Teinbridge and (b) has smaller offices in Honiton and Exmouth.
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