Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

No declarations of interest were made.

None.

PRIVATE SESSION

AGENDA

MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC TO NOTE

Under the law, the Committee is entitled to consider certain items in private. Members of the public will be asked to leave the meeting when such items are discussed.

The Committee is recommended to consider the following item in private on the grounds that it contains ‘exempt’ information, as defined by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, and consequently that the Committee makes the following resolution:-

“that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following item in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, because it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, namely information relating to an individual, and taking all the circumstances into account, it is considered that the public interest in maintaining the information as exempt outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information”.

RESOLVED:

            that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following item in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, because it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in the paragraph detailed below of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information:

Paragraph 1

Information relating to any individual

The Appellant’s Statement of Case and the Management’s Statement of Case are attached for all parties, along with a collection of background and general information.

The Committee considered an appeal against dismissal from post of Civil Enforcement Officer on the grounds of disciplinary conduct.

Nicola Graham (Human Resources Team Manager) and Andrew L Smith (Director, Planning, Development and Transportation) were present as advisors to the Committee.

The management representative was Martin Fletcher, City Highways Director and Ruth Barr was present as HR advisor to management.

The appellant and the appellants representative were present in the meeting.

The Committee carefully considered all the representations made to it and the

written evidence submitted, upon which it was able to ask questions.

RESOLVED:

That the management’s decision to dismiss was overturned and the appellant was reinstated with a final written warning.  This was a majority decision.

REASON FOR THE DECISION: 

Members felt there was mitigation as the situation in which the appellant found himself was one that included aggression from a member of the public, that clearly involved a need for the appellant to defend himself and which escalated very quickly.

Taking this into account, along with the fact that the appellant was given an instruction by his supervisor at the time of the incident to remain in situ (when his training was to walk away) led Members to feel that a final written warning was a more appropriate sanction.