A PROBE has been launched by Thurrock Council into a major personal data breach which has compromised an investigation into the behaviour of a borough councillor.

As reported on Thurrock Nub News, Homesteads councillor Gary Byrne was the subject of a complaint that he made racist comments in a social media post.

A private hearing which included peer councillors and lay members of the council's standards and audit committee found Cllr Byrne guilty of making a racial slur and he was ordered to make a private apology to the complainants. He has done so. And he has also enrolled on additional social media and equalities & diversity training.

Just two people made a complaint, and last night (Thursday, 29 February), when the standards and audit committee met, they were named as Conservative cabinet members Cllrs Deborah Arnold and Barry Johnson.

Cllr Byrne had maintained throughout the process that the complaints against him were politically motivated. He evidenced this by saying his post had had many tens of thousands of views and no-one, other than two rival councillors, had complained. Nor were there any adverse comments on his post.

In the build up to yesterday's meeting, an anonymous email sent through a 'fake' address called [email protected] included a screen shot of confidential information that had been leaked to the sender. It contained a statement that Cllr Byrne had said voters in Stanford-le-Hope were racist'. The statement is the interpretation of Cllr Byrne's answers to Ms Hussain's questions by a council notetaker. There are no direct quotes recorded. 

The email was sent to media representatives, including Nub News, and all members of the council. It used an 'all members' email address which is supposed only to be available for council officers to use, suggesting to some observers that someone within the council is complicit with the leak.

The leaked document is a transcript of an interview between Cllr Byrne and the council's Monitoring Officer, Asmat Hussain, which paraphrases comments made by both.

The script of the meeting suggests Cllr Byrne 'feels that SS17 is horribly racist anyway'. He is said to have acknowledged that the social media post he commented on, which contained allegations about the way in which a Conservative election leaflet had been produced, would 'probably win votes when it comes out'.

The transcript does say that Cllr Byrne acknowledged that his comments 'will not go down well' and he would be happy to apologise.

However, he also expressed the fear that the whole complaint was geared towards compromising him so that political rivals would have more information 'to print on leaflets'.

At last night's meeting, which should have been a matter of recording the outcome of the hearing, Conservative councillors Elizabeth Rigby and James Thandi, supported by a third Conservative, Cllr Maureen Pearce, called for the sanction against Cllr Byrne to be reviewed and suggested he should face further punishment. That view appeared to be echoed by the lay members who had taken part in the original panel hearing.

However, Ms Asmat explained to them that there was no option to change the verdict of the panel, which had been reached democratically after contributions from all on the panel. She said the purpose of the report to committee was to be informative and then for the committee to decide how it should be reported in turn to full council.

The usual policy is for a review of all panel hearings to be submitted annually to council by the committee chair, with just a brief resume of each complaint and the outcome.

Conservatives at last night's meeting called for the matter of the complaint against Cllr Byrne to be treated differently and for it to be brought up for debate at the March full meeting of the council.

They were told by the monitoring officer that was not an option.

Last night's meeting can be viewed via this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UczTR8cfRDI. The agenda item starts at 1:58:50.

Thurrock Council senior officers have contacted all members to say they acknowledge the serious breach of GDPR regulations and that the matter is being investigated and referred to the appropriate authorities.