Complaint over chateau-owning Middlesbrough councillor cost £5k

Ashley Waters resigned as a Middlesbrough councillor in November, amid criticism of the time he spent in France

A complaint against a councillor who quit to renovate a chateau in France cost a local authority nearly £5,000.

Ashley Waters, the former Middlesbrough councillor for North Ormesby, was reported after a licensing sub committee meeting had to be abandoned.

At the March 2021 hearing, he was responsible, alongside two others, for making judgements on whether a shop should be awarded an alcohol licence.

Mr Waters resigned before the matter was heard by the standards committee.

The licensing committee had been discussing whether a licence should be granted for a proposed convenience store in Middlesbrough.

Representations had been received from several parties, including public health - represented by Fiona Helyer.

According to an email from the responsible authorities' barrister (who represents public health, police and the council) to legal services, a message was sent from Mr Waters to Ms Helyer at approximately 14:00 saying 'Hi Fiona, do you need me to say anything else?'.

Mr Waters and his family document their work on the chateau in Normandy on Youtube

Three emails were also sent from Mr Waters, who served as part of the Independent Group, to the barrister between 14:52 and 15:07 containing screenshots from the Facebook page of the proposed supervisor of the store.

When sitting on licensing committees councillors should be strictly independent.

The barrister was concerned that Mr Waters' emails compromised the "general principle of fairness" as he had not copied in the applicant's solicitor, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The hearing had to be abandoned.

A complaint about Mr Waters' actions was accepted by the council's monitoring officer and the authority had to pay £4,911.93 to the applicant and the police for wasted costs.

Mr Waters, who resigned in November over criticism that he was spending too much time renovating a French chateau with his family, said: "The only thing I can say to this was that I was working in the best interests of the Middlesbrough public.

"The highlighted behaviour of the person in question was alarming, and the reason I contacted the barrister, was due to the fact he said he could not see the information that was being presented in the meeting and I was trying to make him aware of it."