The mayor of Ripon has warned that the city council - and one of its councillors - are at risk of legal action amid an escalation of a bitter fallout over the management of staff.
Councillor Barbara Brodigan says she is taking legal advice regarding “defamatory comments” made by a fellow councillor and has also claimed that the authority could be sued by one of several former employees.
The warnings come amid a power struggle at the authority following the resignation of three of the council’s four staff.
Several councillors, including Cllr Brodigan and long-serving member Pauline McHardy, have blamed former leader, Councillor Andrew Wiliams, former deputy leader Peter Horton, and former mayor Jackie Crozier, who all served on a previous staffing committee, for the departures.
But this has been rejected by the three councillors, who have suggested the fault lies with Jo Bate, the former chair of the committee, who resigned as a councillor last month.
In the latest twist, Cllr Sidney Hawke, who was previously aligned to a group led by councillors Brodigan and McHardy, this week announced his backing for councillors Williams, Crozier and Horton.
His statement on his change of position went on to criticise the two councillors, and make accusations regarding their motivation for attempting to take control of the council, which were reported in the local media.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has now learnt that hours before issuing the statement, Cllr Hawke had visited Cllr Brodigan asking for help to write a letter resigning as a councillor.
In the letter, seen by the LDRS but never submitted, Cllr Hawke is critical of the three councillors who then get his support the following day.
Cllr Brodigan said:
“Cllr Hawke joined our group of councillors because he was angry with Cllr Williams’ group and wanted things to change.
“I am shocked and disgusted at the level of betrayal. His comments are defamatory and I am taking legal advice about them.”
Cllr McHardy said she too was taking legal advice on the comments directed at her.
Cllr Brodigan said GDPR rules meant she was unable to reveal why the three staff members left the council, but there was the possibility of one former staff member suing the authority for constructive dismissal.
She added:
“Although these members of staff have left, their cases are still live and if they want to take out a grievance against the council, they will still be able to do that.
“We have been investigating what’s been happening and we have found information out that we were unaware of, and that as councillors we should have been aware of.
“Decisions have been made that I think if the public knew, they would be quite shocked and their attitude towards us would probably shift dramatically.”
She added:
“The truth will eventually come out I’m sure.”
Cllr Brodigan said Cllr Hawke’s decision to rejoin with Cllr Williams’ meant his group would potentially have the majority on the council, and she expected any changes recently introduced by herself and other councillors to be overturned in coming weeks.
Cllr Williams said his group was “tired of the insinuations that Cllr Brodigan continued to make” that he said she did “without ever providing any evidence to substantiate the claims”.
He added:
“We have at all times acted in the interests of the residents of Ripon that we were elected to represent.
“My group will continue to look forwards not backwards and will seek to work to bring some calm and stability to Ripon City Council by seeking to establish some consensus and sensible decision making.”
Cllr Hawke declined to comment on the threat of legal action or the earlier drafted letter regarding his proposed resignation when approached by the LDRS.
Calling on Cllr Brodigan to resign as mayor, he added:
“I do feel misled and I feel that things should have been done differently and there would not be the animosity that currently exists in the city as a result.”
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