Shaftesbury councillors to apologise for insulting colleagues

Two councillors have been ordered to apologise after they were found to have brought a council into disrepute.

A Dorset Council hearing decided Shaftesbury town councillors Peter Yeo and Karen Tippins had failed to treat others with respect.

Both councillors were found to have insulted colleagues during debates, breaching their code of conduct.

Mr Yeo and Ms Tippins claim there has been a campaign against them after they questioned council spending plans.

They said they had questioned the council's proposals to spend £500,000 on a 3G pitch for the town football club - roughly equivalent to the council's annual budget, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

The hearing heard Mr Yeo had been excluded from meetings five times in the past year after trying to question the town council's spending, LDRS reported.

He was also found to have made an obscene gesture to a committee chairman and repeatedly mouthed a rude word after his microphone was turned off in one online meeting.

'Entitled to speak out'

Ms Tippins admitted calling fellow councillor Michael Welch "an idiot" and "thick" and said she later apologised but insisted she had been provoked.

She was also found to have been disrespectful to a football club speaker by turning her back.

Ms Tippins argued at the hearing that council debate was expected to be "robust".

Mr Yeo criticised Dorset Council's investigation and said: "We should be investigating things which are serious like councillors voting money into their own charity, not trivia like this."

Witness Richard Thomas told the hearing: "No council should systematically be barring any elected members from its functions."

He said both councillors were "difficult people" but that they were still entitled to speak out and represent the people of Shaftesbury who had elected them.

Mr Yeo and Ms Tippins must also attend an approved code of conduct course.