A THURROCK councillor apologised after being held to account by a hearing after he shared a social media post about an election candidate on Facebook.

Thurrock Council held a code of conduct hearing after it was claimed that Independent Gary Byrne used a Stanford-le-Hope group Facebook page to suggest a candidate had used photoshop to lighten their skin colour to gain votes in the run up to last year's local elections.

No members of the public complained, but two senior Conservative councillors made an internal complaint, branding the post "disrespectful and morally wrong" and said it was "blatantly racist" to make such comments on the site which has 38,000 followers.

Cllr Byrne told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he had been the subject of a political "witch hunt" and stated that although he shared the post on Facebook, he was not the originator of the post.

The code of conduct panel's investigating officer said: "The post by councillor Byrne falls into the category of abusive behaviour and could be reasonably regarded as adversely affecting the public's confidence in them being able to fulfil their role, as the post was, even by councillor Byrne's own admission, poorly judged, and posted without thought to any offence it might cause to anyone including members of the public."

The officer added that regardless of whether it was Cllr Byrne's intention or not, the inference that a person would have to lighten their skin to get votes, is "offensive to an individual's characteristics, promotes negative stereotypes and amounts to behaviour that is racially discriminatory."

A report to the code of conduct panel said: "Cllr Byrne used a private Facebook page where he is widely known as a local Councillor and posted to 38,000 followers of that page. The inference that candidates with lighter skin meant there was a greater chance of them gaining votes, was a racist comment that wasn't deleted immediately when an objection was raised.

"There was acknowledgement that the post could be considered racist and that it was ill-judged and ill-advised. No apology has been given, and no remorse has been shown thus far. The panel noted that breaches of behaviour not only impacted on the council members, officers and community but set a tone of culture and behaviour that is not acceptable in Thurrock Council."

The panel added: "In considering the sanctions to impose, the members took into account the seriousness of the breaches in terms of disrepute, respect and equalities and felt that it fell below the standards required of expected members at Thurrock Council."

The panel called for Cllr Byrne to make a private apology, in writing and attend training on equalities and diversity, and social media.

He has done so.

The matter will now be reported to the Standards and Audit Committee, due to meet next week.

It was the decision of the council's monitoring officer, Asmat Hussain, not to withhold publication of the report from the investigating officer, even though it named Cllr Byrne, but not the senior councillors who complained.

In a statement copied to the media, including Nub News, Cllr Byrne said he was disappointed at the outcome of the hearing but had willingly apologised within 24 hours of the decision and had enrolled on the training.

He added: "Clearly I feel this became a political issue. I did not write this post, I merely repeated it because I genuinely felt it was a Tory election promotional piece that was in itself racist because it used pictures that have clearly been doctored to lighten the skin of the Conservative candidate who was black and of African origin.

"The assertion that the pictures were digitally altered has not been disproved.

"Why would the Conservatives do such a thing? I leave it to people to decide - especially in light of the fact that of the tens of thousands of people who saw the post, only two Tories complained.

"I'm also disappointed that the Monitoring Officer decided that I should be 'named and shamed' but the names of the two councillors who complained is regarded as a matter of confidentiality.

"I don't think I have been treated fairly but it is what it is. People who know me can make judgement of their own about whether I am a racist.

"I confess I have a number of failings, not least I wear my heart on my sleeve and react passionately when I think something is wrong.

"It's also interesting that the panel that judged me felt a private apology to the complainants and my signing up to training was sufficient. They did not call for a public 'shaming'."

The complaint decision notice that has been published as part of the agenda for next week's Standards and Audit Committee can be read via this link.