A councillor has been sanctioned following a dispute over grass-cutting with his neighbour.

St Bees Parish Councillor Simon Ritson was found to have used his position on the council to prevent his neighbour from maintaining a piece of land outside of his property.

Copeland Council’s  standards and ethics committee heard that on May 27, Cllr Ritson’s neighbour was preparing to cut an area of grass outside his property which was overgrown.

As he was preparing to start, he alleged that a voice came over a loud speaker, which said: “Mr Williamson, you are not allowed to cut the grass. This is St Bees Parish Council and you cannot cut the grass. We are allowing it to grow to protect the insects. Do not cut the grass, you are breaking Parish Council rules”.

The neighbour went on to say that the voice was that of Cllr Ritson and was coming from a CCTV camera installed at their property.

The committee unanimously agreed that there had been a breach of the council’s code of conduct.

Members agreed that based on the evidence supplied, the message conveyed over the speaker system did refer to the parish council.

They found that the complainant’s version of events were supported by a number of witnesses, while Cllr Ritson provided no evidence to support his version.

Committee members deemed Cllr Ritson’s behaviour to be “unacceptable” and were “appalled” by the contents of the defending statement which was read out during the hearing.

Cllr Ritson was issued with a conditional warning in respect of future behaviour for a period of two years.

The committee accepted that it was a private dispute between neighbours but were in agreement that the Parish Council should be made aware as it was now bringing the council into disrepute.

Copeland Council’s monitoring officer will write to the clerk of St Bees Parish Council, to inform them of the outcome.

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