23 April 2004
Three councillors have been suspended from meetings for rowdiness, following the Standards Commission for Scotland's first ruling on allegations of misconduct.
The commission confirmed this week that David Mylet, Derek Mackay and James Mitchell, all Scottish National Party members of Renfrewshire Council, breached the principles of leadership and respect as set out in a code of conduct for councillors.
The complaint related to actions that disrupted a meeting of the council's lifelong learning and work policy board on June 5, 2003.
Mylett and Mackay are banned from taking part in all meetings of the council, its committees or sub-committees for six weeks. Mitchell has been suspended for four weeks.
Although not members of the policy board, the three councillors attended the meeting and were allowed to remain.
Mylet and Mackay were alleged to have spoken 'loudly and volubly' at the meeting, left their seats, and continued to address the meeting in an intimidating manner.
Mitchell was said to have contributed to the voluble disruption and to have addressed the meeting from the convener's chair, also in an intimidating manner.
Each of the three councillors appeared to genuinely misunderstand that the recently introduced code would apply to what they considered to be purely political action, the commission said.
Labour is the largest party on the council, with 21 of the 40 members, while the SNP holds 15 seats.
PFapr2004
